Tornadoes · United States · Arkansas · 1995

F1 tornado, Lakeview, Arkansas, November 11, 1995

This F1 tornado ran 0.9 miles across Phillips County on November 11, 1995, touching down at 12:38 AM CST and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 to $500,000 of property damage.

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 mphthis tornado

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

  3. F2113 to 157 mph

    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
F1
Date
November 11, 1995
Touchdown
12:38 AM CST (06:38 UTC)
Path length
0.9 miles (1.4 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
County
Phillips County
Touchdown point
34.420, -90.800
Record number
1187

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado touched down along a road in Lakeview. Three homes, two of which were brick, were heavily damaged. One mobile home was destroyed. Another mobile home was moved off its foundation. Three to four other homes received minor damage. Numerous trees had twisted and broken limbs with pieces of tin roofing and other debris hanging from the trees and power lines. Two large trees were uprooted and moved 25 feet. One of the trees had a field disker entangled in it.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
06:18 UTC07:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMEG
06:46 UTC07:15 UTCTornado WarningMEG

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 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

6.6 hours before the tornado, 90 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°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

5.4 hours after it, 90 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°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 radar

The Memphis radar (KNQA), 133 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 06:36 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 11, 1995

29 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
November 111:45 AM CSTF1Chicot, AR2.01002$5,000 to $50,000
November 113:10 AM CSTF3Madison, MS15.02002$50,000 to $500,000
November 114:55 AM CSTF3Covington, MS7.04002$50,000 to $500,000
November 115:15 AM CSTF1Walthall, MS3.020$5,000 to $50,000
November 118:57 AM CSTF1Walton, FL0.250$5,000 to $50,000
November 119:00 AM CSTF0Houston, AL0.110$500 to $5,000
November 119:06 AM CSTF1Walton, FL0.130$5,000 to $50,000
November 1110:08 AM ESTF1Decatur, GA0.130$5,000 to $50,000
November 1110:30 AM ESTF1Grady, GA1.0100$50,000 to $500,000
November 119:32 AM CSTF1Washington, FL0.120$5,000 to $50,000
November 1110:40 AM ESTF1Grady, GA2.0100$50,000 to $500,000
November 119:54 AM CSTF0Calhoun, FL0.110
November 1111:10 AM ESTF1Thomas, GA0.1501$5,000 to $50,000
November 1111:20 AM ESTF1Brooks, GA0.373$50,000 to $500,000
November 1111:27 AM ESTF1Gadsden, FL5.0100
November 1111:50 AM ESTF1Leon, FL0.5100$50,000 to $500,000
November 1111:50 AM ESTF0Franklin, FL0.120$500 to $5,000
November 112:10 PM ESTF0Wakulla, FL0.120$5,000 to $50,000
November 117:30 PM ESTF0Harford, MD0.5100$5,000 to $50,000
November 117:50 PM ESTF1Edgecombe, NC1.01003$5,000 to $50,000
November 118:00 PM ESTF0Saint Mary's, MD0.873$50,000 to $500,000
November 118:05 PM ESTF1City of Suffolk, VA0.81001$50,000 to $500,000
November 118:10 PM ESTF0Saint Mary's, MD0.150$500 to $5,000
November 118:15 PM ESTF2Northampton, NC0.3100$50,000 to $500,000
November 118:50 PM ESTF1Accomack, VA2.0100$50,000 to $500,000
November 118:55 PM ESTF0Hillsborough, FL1.2502$5,000 to $50,000
November 119:00 PM ESTF1Gates, NC2.2100$5,000 to $50,000
November 119:20 PM ESTF0Worcester, MD0.550$500 to $5,000
November 119:25 PM ESTF1Pasquotank, NC1.0100$5,000 to $50,000

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.