Tornadoes · United States · Arkansas · 2000

F1 tornado, Benton, Arkansas, February 18, 2000

This F1 tornado ran 7.8 miles across Saline County on February 18, 2000, touching down at 12:03 PM CST and reaching 70 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 9.

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 mphthis tornado

    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
F1
Date
February 18, 2000
Touchdown
12:03 PM CST (18:03 UTC)
Path length
7.8 miles (12.6 km)
Path width
70 yards (64 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
9
County
Saline County
Touchdown point
34.580, -92.650
Lift-off point
34.580, -92.500
Record number
43

What the Weather Service recorded

A weak tornado was spawned in Saline County about 3.6 miles west-northwest of Benton. The tornado moved east into the Benton area, damaging homes and businesses. There were 66 homes with minor damage, 18 homes with major damage and 10 commercial buildings damaged. There were 9 injuries reported, with the injured treated and released from the hospital. The tornado also downed trees and power lines before dissipating 1.2 miles southwest of Bryant.

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 17:40 UTC, 23 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:30 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
17:40 UTC18:30 UTCTornado WarningLZK
19:35 UTC20:10 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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:19 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

6.1 hours before the tornado, 242 km from the path. February 18, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 2000-02-18Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 84 joules per kilogram, CIN -282, lifted condensation level 693 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 2000-02-18The 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 519 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 48 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
84 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-282 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
693 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
48 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
54 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
519 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
495 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.7
0-3 km lapse rate
3.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

5.9 hours after it, 242 km from the path. February 19, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 2000-02-19Temperature 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 -93109, lifted condensation level 1092 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 00:00Z on 2000-02-19The 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 -134 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 59 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
-93109 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1092 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
59 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-134 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
38 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
2.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Little Rock/Adams (LIT), 35 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
16:29 UTC71.662.6200° 17 kt221011.9
16:53 UTC7564200° 15 kt221011.5
17:53 UTC71.662.6200° 13 kt221010.8
18:12 UTC71.662.6200° 13 kt1011.2-TSRA
18:22 UTC69.864.4210° 13 kt1011.2+TSRA BR
18:26 UTC69.864.4200° 12 kt1010.8+TSRA BR
18:40 UTC66.264.4250° 12 kt1011.5+TSRA BR
18:46 UTC66.262.6260° 11 kt1011.5-TSRA BR
18:53 UTC6762230° 12 kt1011.5-TSRA BR
19:18 UTC62.659310° 22 kt311012.2-TSRA BR
19:53 UTC6056300° 15 kt241012.5-TSRA BR

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

The radar

The Little Rock radar (KLZK), 40 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:04 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 2000 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of February 18, 2000

8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
February 1812:40 PM CSTF0Pulaski, AR0.340
February 1812:50 PM CSTF0Pulaski, AR0.550
February 183:00 PM CSTF0St. Francis, AR1.020$30,000
February 184:14 PM CSTF0Marshall, MS1.020
February 185:15 PM CSTF0Grenada, MS1.040$10,000
February 185:19 PM CSTF0Yalobusha, MS1.020
February 186:15 PM CSTF0Alcorn, MS1.020
February 188:25 PM CSTF0Lowndes, MS1.040

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.