Tornadoes · United States · Arkansas · 1996

F2 tornado, Malvern, Arkansas, September 26, 1996

This F2 tornado ran 9.0 miles across Hot Spring County on September 26, 1996, touching down at 3:24 PM CDT and reaching 60 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 15, and did $2.1 million 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
September 26, 1996
Touchdown
3:24 PM CDT (20:24 UTC)
Path length
9.0 miles (14.5 km)
Path width
60 yards (55 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
15
Property damage
$2.1 million
County
Hot Spring County
Touchdown point
34.370, -92.800
Lift-off point
34.470, -92.680
Record number
783

What the Weather Service recorded

The tornado first touched down in Malvern. A packaging plant, car dealership and several other buildings in Malvern sustained damage. 15 people in Malvern received minor injuries. The tornado continued moving northeastward where it uprooted numerous trees along its path. The tornado exited Hot Spring County at 345 pm CDT. Damage along the track of the tornado was consistent with an F2 rating. Initial estimates placed the amount of damage at just over $2,000,000.

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
19:56 UTC21:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLZK
20:29 UTC21:30 UTCTornado 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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:53 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.

Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 12:00Z

8.4 hours before the tornado, 235 km from the path. September 26, 1996.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA at 12:00Z on 1996-09-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 152 joules per kilogram, CIN -112, lifted condensation level 761 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, Shreveport, LA at 12:00Z on 1996-09-26The 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 132 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 24 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
152 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-112 J/kg
Surface CAPE
81 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
761 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
132 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
192 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.9
0-3 km lapse rate
4.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 00:00Z

3.6 hours after it, 235 km from the path. September 27, 1996.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA at 00:00Z on 1996-09-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 932 joules per kilogram, CIN -60, lifted condensation level 753 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, Shreveport, LA at 00:00Z on 1996-09-27The 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 261 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 40 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
932 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-60 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1029 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
753 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
261 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
300 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.8
Supercell composite
11.3
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Hot Springs (HOT), 33 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
18:50 UTC75.271.6170° 10 kt1007.1-SHRA
19:51 UTC7771.6170° 8 kt1006.8
20:41 UTC73.471.6120° 7 kt1006.4
20:52 UTC73.469.8120° 6 kt1006.1-TS RA
21:10 UTC280° 15 kt
21:31 UTC69.869.8200° 11 kt1007.8
21:50 UTC66.266.2220° 5 kt1007.1-TS RA BR
22:04 UTC66.266.2210° 7 kt1007.8-TS RA BR
22:26 UTC6866.2170° 4 kt1007.5

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 September 26, 1996

7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 263:20 AM CDTF1Newton, MO9.050$30,000
September 268:05 AM CDTF1Marion, AR0.240
September 2612:37 PM CDTF0Sebastian, AR0.325$4,000
September 262:20 PM CDTF0Camp, TX2.0501$10,000
September 263:45 PM CDTF2Saline, AR2.0200$100,000
September 264:27 PM CDTF0Pulaski, AR0.120
September 2612:45 AM CDTF0Marshall, MS0.520$10,000

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.