Tornadoes · United States · Arkansas · 2000

F2 tornado, Furlow to Hazen, Arkansas, February 13, 2000

From Furlow to Hazen, this F2 tornado ran 32.7 miles across Lonoke and Prairie counties on February 13, 2000, touching down at 5:38 PM CST and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 2.

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
February 13, 2000
Touchdown
5:38 PM CST (23:38 UTC)
Path length
32.7 miles (52.6 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
2
Counties
Lonoke and Prairie counties
Touchdown point
34.880, -91.980
Lift-off point
34.820, -91.430
Record number
41

What the Weather Service recorded

A strong tornado was spawned in western Lonoke County about 3.7 miles north of Furlow. Just as the tornado developed, it removed roof shingles from a few houses and badly damaged a farm shop. A mobile home was then demolished in the Fairview community. The worst structural damaged was found at the intersection of Arkansas Highways 31 and 236, or 4 miles south of Woodlawn. There, two small houses and some grain bins were destroyed, several vehicles and some telephone equipment were badly damaged and power poles were blown down. Farther east, more damage was found about 5 miles north of Carlisle near the intersection of Arkansas Highway 13 and East Shaefer Road. In this area, an old abandoned house and a mobile home were destroyed with a couple of houses damaged. Also, at least three dozen power poles were replaced. Two injuries were reported in Lonoke County. The tornado moved east into Prairie County, crossing the county line about 5 miles northeast of Carlisle.

A strong tornado that was spawned in Lonoke County moved into Prairie County, crossing the county line about 7.5 miles northwest of Hazen. Not long after entering the county, the tornado damaged or destroyed a couple of barns and several shop buildings in the Center Point community on Arkansas Highway 249. In the same area, a mobile home was knocked off of its foundation, a home was badly damaged by a fallen tree, and shingles were removed from several roofs. The tornado began weakening as it headed into the Wattensaw Wildlife Management Area, where some tree damage was found. The tornado dissipated about 1.7 miles west of Biscoe.

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

The warnings

11 minutes of warning. NWS LZK issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:27 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:27 UTC00:15 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:52 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

11.6 hours before the tornado, 160 km from the path. February 13, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 2000-02-13Temperature 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 -20021, lifted condensation level 565 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, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 2000-02-13The 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 656 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 70 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-20021 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
565 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
70 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
44 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
656 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
708 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
2.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

0.4 hours after it, 160 km from the path. February 14, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 2000-02-14Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 624 joules per kilogram, CIN -6, lifted condensation level 1332 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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 2000-02-14The 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 154 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 41 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
624 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-6 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1375 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1332 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
154 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
262 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.4
Supercell composite
5.3
0-3 km lapse rate
9.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2000 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of February 13, 2000

10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
February 133:00 PM CSTF1Montgomery, AL11.4300$100,000
February 133:30 PM CSTF0Montgomery, AL3.0100$20,000
February 133:42 PM CSTF0Bullock, AL1.050$10,000
February 134:52 PM CSTF0Faulkner, AR2.240
February 136:04 PM CSTF1Davidson, TN4.32001$500,000
February 138:15 PM CSTF1Washington, FL0.550$300,000
February 138:18 PM CSTF1Washington, FL0.550$750,000
February 1311:19 PM ESTF1Decatur, GA0.2501$1.0 million
February 1311:42 PM ESTF3Mitchell, GA9.230011175$20 million
February 1312:49 AM ESTF3Grady, GA15.0300715$5.0 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.