Tornadoes · United States · Arkansas · 1996

F0 tornado, Benton to Bryant, Arkansas, May 27, 1996

From Benton to Bryant, this F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Saline County on May 27, 1996, touching down at 3:41 PM CDT and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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 mphthis tornado

    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 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
F0
Date
May 27, 1996
Touchdown
3:41 PM CDT (20:41 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Saline County
Touchdown point
34.600, -92.480
Lift-off point
34.600, -92.480
Record number
320

What the Weather Service recorded

A weak F0 tornado touched down briefly in an open area just east of Benton. No damage occurred with the storm.

A weak F0 tornado touched down briefly in an open field in Bryant. No damage occurred with the storm.

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

The warnings

23 minutes of warning. NWS LZK issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:18 UTC, 23 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:18 UTC21:00 UTCTornado WarningLZK
02:37 UTC03:30 UTCTornado WarningLZK
03:40 UTC07:25 UTCFlash Flood WarningLZK
03:46 UTC04:45 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 06:19 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), 12:00Z

8.7 hours before the tornado, 233 km from the path. May 27, 1996.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 1996-05-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2617 joules per kilogram, CIN -6, lifted condensation level 655 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 12:00Z on 1996-05-27The 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 236 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 38 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
2617 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-6 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1324 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
655 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
236 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
188 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
2.2
Supercell composite
11.7
0-3 km lapse rate
6.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

3.3 hours after it, 233 km from the path. May 28, 1996.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 1996-05-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2600 joules per kilogram, CIN -9, lifted condensation level 885 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 1996-05-28The 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 119 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 51 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
2600 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-9 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2900 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
885 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
51 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
119 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
157 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
2.1
Supercell composite
8.5
0-3 km lapse rate
6.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Little Rock/Adams (LIT), 26 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
19:00 UTC8073210° 9 kt1008.1
20:00 UTC8273210° 12 kt1007.1
21:00 UTC7874210° 8 kt1006.8-TSRA FG
22:00 UTC8477200° 11 kt1005.8

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

The radar

The Little Rock radar (KLZK), 33 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:40 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 1996 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 27, 1996

10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 272:25 PM CDTF3Clark, AR26.0440$1.8 million
May 272:50 PM CDTF1Taylor, IA0.345$2,000
May 272:55 PM CDTF0Ringgold, IA0.125
May 273:15 PM CDTF3Dallas, AR15.0440$130,000
May 273:34 PM CDTF0Decatur, IA0.125
May 273:35 PM CDTF0Saline, AR0.120
May 277:28 PM EDTF0Bradley, TN3.530
May 278:30 PM CDTF0Pike, IL1.050
May 278:40 PM CDTF0Adams, IL0.550
May 2710:45 PM CDTF0Sangamon, IL2.540

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.