Tornadoes · United States · Arkansas · 1996

F2 tornado, Fern, Arkansas, April 21, 1996

This F2 tornado ran 3.0 miles across Franklin County on April 21, 1996, touching down at 11:55 PM CDT and reaching 400 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 2, and did $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 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
April 21, 1996
Touchdown
11:55 PM CDT (04:55 UTC)
Path length
3.0 miles (4.8 km)
Path width
400 yards (366 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
2
Property damage
$500,000
County
Franklin County
Touchdown point
35.620, -94.030
Lift-off point
35.650, -94.000
Record number
183

What the Weather Service recorded

The tornado touched down just to the southwest of Fern. It moved northeastward, through the town of Fern, where 7 homes were destroyed and a number of other buildings were damaged. The tornado continued moving northeastward and lifted 3 miles northeast of Fern. A number of trees were blown down along the tornado's path. 2 people sustained minor injuries from the storm. Initial estimates place the amount of damage at around $500,000.

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

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.

Springfield, MO (KSGF), 00:00Z

4.9 hours before the tornado, 142 km from the path. April 22, 1996.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Springfield, MO at 00:00Z on 1996-04-22Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1598 joules per kilogram, CIN -8, lifted condensation level 594 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, Springfield, MO at 00:00Z on 1996-04-22The 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 8 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 54 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
1598 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-8 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1786 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
594 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
54 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
8 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
30 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.0
Supercell composite
-0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
7.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Springfield, MO (KSGF), 12:00Z

7.1 hours after it, 142 km from the path. April 22, 1996.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Springfield, MO at 12:00Z on 1996-04-22Temperature 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 -46040, lifted condensation level 890 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, Springfield, MO at 12:00Z on 1996-04-22The 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 -18 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 50 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
-46040 J/kg
Surface CAPE
21 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
890 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
50 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-18 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-101 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Fayetteville/Drake (FYV), 43 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
00:00 UTC

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1996 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 21, 1996

30 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 215:00 PM CDTF0Noble, OK2.0100
April 215:42 PM CDTF1Carter, OK0.550$10,000
April 216:30 PM CDTF1Carter, OK4.5150
April 216:35 PM CDTF0Carter, OK0.125
April 216:35 PM CDTF0Carter, OK0.125
April 216:45 PM CDTF0Carter, OK2.5500
April 216:51 PM CDTF0Murray, OK0.125
April 217:00 PM CDTF1Osage, OK0.5100$150,000
April 217:25 PM CDTF0Murray, OK1.0100
April 217:28 PM CDTF1Murray, OK3.0150$280,000
April 217:28 PM CDTF0Nowata, OK0.125
April 217:49 PM CDTF0Murray, OK0.550$1,000
April 217:50 PM CDTF0Murray, OK0.550$1,000
April 218:15 PM CDTF1Ottawa, OK0.125$50,000
April 218:25 PM CDTF0Montague, TX0.120$10,000
April 218:30 PM CDTF0Montague, TX0.120
April 219:00 PM CDTF0Cooke, TX2.030$10,000
April 219:05 PM CDTF0Cooke, TX2.030$10,000
April 219:15 PM CDTF0Pittsburg, OK3.01009$750,000
April 219:20 PM CDTF0Cooke, TX0.120
April 219:30 PM CDTF1Pittsburg, OK5.0100$100,000
April 219:33 PM CDTF0Grayson, TX1.025$10,000
April 2110:00 PM CDTF1Haskell, OK1.075
April 2110:07 PM CDTF0Grayson, TX0.120$2,000
April 2110:25 PM CDTF0Cooke, TX1.020$10,000
April 2110:58 PM CDTF0Grayson, TX2.030$10,000
April 2111:12 PM CDTF3Sebastian, OK to AR10.11,050289$150 million
April 2111:30 PM CDTF0Webster, MO2.070$100,000
April 2111:40 PM CDTF0Grayson, TX2.030$2,000
April 2112:15 AM CDTF3Madison, AR15.01,05026$1.0 million

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.