Tornadoes · United States · Arkansas · 1995

F2 tornado, Prairie and Woodruff counties, Arkansas, November 10, 1995

This F2 tornado ran 8.5 miles across Prairie and Woodruff counties on November 10, 1995, touching down at 11:02 PM CST and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed 2 people and injured 1.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. F3158 to 206 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5261 to 318 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
F2
Date
November 10, 1995
Touchdown
11:02 PM CST (05:02 UTC)
Path length
8.5 miles (13.7 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
2
Injuries
1
Counties
Prairie and Woodruff counties
Touchdown point
35.030, -91.530
Lift-off point
35.050, -91.400
Record number
1185

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
04:42 UTC05:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLZK
05:35 UTC06:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLZK

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Moderate Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:54 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Little Rock, AR (KLZK), 00:00Z

5.0 hours before the tornado, 140 km from the path. November 11, 1995.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 1995-11-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 755 joules per kilogram, CIN -24, lifted condensation level 549 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 1995-11-11The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 409 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 51 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
755 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-24 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
549 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
51 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
409 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
509 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
7.4
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Little Rock, AR (KLZK), 12:00Z

7.0 hours after it, 140 km from the path. November 11, 1995.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 1995-11-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -83987, lifted condensation level 705 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 1995-11-11The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -192 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 87 knots.1939587897117136Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-83987 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
705 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
87 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-192 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
1 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Stuttgart (Awos) (SGT), 50 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
04:00 UTC6763.86170° 17 kt1002
05:00 UTC7065.84140° 10 kt999.7
06:00 UTC5250320° 28 kt381006.1
07:00 UTC4945.86320° 18 kt251007.5

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The radar

The Little Rock radar (KLZK), 76 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:04 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1995 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of November 10, 1995

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
November 104:50 PM CSTF2Laclede, MO10.0200$500,000 to $5 million
November 1011:40 PM CSTF1Prairie, AR1.050

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.