Tornadoes · United States · Arkansas · 2001
F1 tornado, Beebe to Higginson, Arkansas, February 24, 2001
From Beebe to Higginson, this F1 tornado ran 7.0 miles across White County on February 24, 2001, touching down at 4:14 PM CST and reaching 100 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.
F040 to 72 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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 24, 2001
- Touchdown
- 4:14 PM CST (22:14 UTC)
- Path length
- 7.0 miles (11.3 km)
- Path width
- 100 yards (91 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- White County
- Touchdown point
- 35.030, -91.900
- Lift-off point
- 35.120, -91.780
- Record number
- 13
What the Weather Service recorded
A strong tornado moved from northern Lonoke County into southern White County about 2.5 miles south-southwest of Beebe. The tornado was only on the ground about half a mile before dissipating 2 miles south-southwest of Beebe. The tornado caused mostly tree damage.
A weak tornado was spawned in southern White County about 2 miles south of Beebe. The tornado moved quickly northeast, and badly damaged several mobile homes. Roofs were also damaged at a couple of homes, with trees downed. The tornado travelled about 7 miles before dissipating about 1.5 miles east of McRae.
A weak tornado was spawned in central White County just southwest of Higginson. The tornado moved quickly northeast, and damaged the roofs at a few homes in Higginson. The tornado also overturned a travel trailer in town. Farther northeast, the tornado heavily damaged a restaurant in Kensett, with roof damage at a local car wash and at the post office. Trees and power lines were also downed. The tornado travelled about 3.5 miles before dissipating just north of Kensett.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
19 minutes of warning. NWS LZK issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:55 UTC, 19 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:45 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21:55 UTC | 22:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | LZK |
| 22:55 UTC | 23:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | LZK |
| 23:34 UTC | 00:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | LZK |
| 00:04 UTC | 01:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | LZK |
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 20:12 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
10.2 hours before the tornado, 174 km from the path. February 24, 2001.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -72518 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 485 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 55 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 43 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 456 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 552 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.7
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 2.7 K/km
Little Rock, AR (KLZK), 00:00Z
1.8 hours after it, 174 km from the path. February 25, 2001.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 999 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -16 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1090 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 634 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 60 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 55 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 420 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 489 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 3.2
- Supercell composite
- 13.4
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.8 K/km
The radar
The Little Rock radar (KLZK), 47 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:11 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 2001 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of February 24, 2001
20 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 24 | 3:24 PM CST | F1 | Webster, MO | 6.5 | 50 | $150,000 | ||
| February 24 | 3:31 PM CST | F2 | Pulaski, AR | 14.3 | 200 | 8 | ||
| February 24 | 1:50 PM PST | F0 | Orange, CA | 0.1 | 100 | $50,000 | ||
| February 24 | 3:50 PM CST | F1 | Pulaski, AR | 2.2 | 85 | |||
| February 24 | 4:06 PM CST | F2 | Lonoke, AR | 8.0 | 300 | |||
| February 24 | 4:21 PM CST | F1 | Lonoke, AR | 9.0 | 60 | 3 | ||
| February 24 | 4:27 PM CST | F1 | White, AR | 3.5 | 40 | |||
| February 24 | 4:46 PM CST | F2 | Fulton, AR | 8.0 | 300 | 1 | 3 | |
| February 24 | 5:34 PM CST | F2 | Jackson, AR | 11.0 | 200 | $70,000 | ||
| February 24 | 5:43 PM CST | F1 | Drew, AR | 5.5 | 100 | 1 | ||
| February 24 | 6:01 PM CST | F3 | Desha, AR | 42.0 | 300 | |||
| February 24 | 6:10 PM CST | F0 | Ashley, AR | 0.5 | 200 | $1,000 | ||
| February 24 | 6:13 PM CST | F1 | Lonoke, AR | 2.7 | 100 | |||
| February 24 | 6:25 PM CST | F2 | Prairie, AR | 12.7 | 200 | |||
| February 24 | 6:30 PM CST | F0 | Chicot, AR | 0.5 | 200 | $1,000 | ||
| February 24 | 6:35 PM CST | F2 | Washington, MS | 37.0 | 440 | $1.5 million | ||
| February 24 | 6:42 PM CST | F2 | Desha, AR | 9.0 | 200 | 2 | $50,000 | |
| February 24 | 8:20 PM CST | F0 | Humphreys, MS | 0.5 | 350 | $10,000 | ||
| February 24 | 8:37 PM CST | F3 | Leflore, MS | 22.0 | 400 | $2.3 million | ||
| February 24 | 9:35 PM CST | F3 | Calhoun, MS | 52.0 | 1,000 | 6 | 73 | $31 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.