F4 tornado, Okolona to Arkadelphia, Arkansas, March 1, 1997

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 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 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

F4

Date

March 1, 1997

Touchdown

2:20 PM CST (20:20 UTC)

Path length

27.0 miles (43.4 km)

Path width

1,053 yards (963 m)

Deaths

6

Injuries

100

County

Clark County

Touchdown point

33.900, -93.330

Lift-off point

34.150, -93.020

Record number

150

The tornado moved out of Nevada County and into Clark County approximately 6.5 miles south of Okolona at 220 pm CST. The tornado continued moving northeastward, causing considerable tree damage and downing a number of power lines. The first fatality occurred along I-30, several miles southwest of Arkadelphia where a vehicle was blown off the highway and the driver was killed. A truck-stop was also destroyed near this location as well. At 242 pm CST, the tornado moved into the City of Arkadelphia. A number of homes and businesses in Arkadelphia were either damaged or destroyed. 5 people in Arkadelphia were also killed. The tornado continued to move northeastward, knocking down more trees and power lines, as well as damaging more homes. The tornado exited Clark County approximately 3.5 miles northeast of Arkadelphia at 247 pm CST.Damage along the track of the tornado was mostly F2 to F3. However, some timber and structural damage along the path was consistent with an F4 rating.

The deaths

6 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

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.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Moderate Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:05 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 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.

The Little Rock radar (KLZK), 123 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:17 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.

The live radar over the trackEvery 1997 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are

55 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

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