F1 tornado, Denning to Altus, Arkansas, November 23, 2001

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.

Rating

F1

Date

November 23, 2001

Touchdown

7:25 PM CST (01:25 UTC)

Path length

8.0 miles (12.9 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$210,000

Counties

Logan and Franklin counties

Touchdown point

35.320, -93.900

Lift-off point

35.400, -93.800

Record number

844

An F1 tornado touched down 8 miles southwest of Denning and lifted just southwest of Denning. Along its path it damaged several barns and one house. The house was near Etna and it suffered roof damage and structural damage. The tornado briefly exited Franklin County as it crossed a corner of Logan County (see NWS Little Rock's report) and then returned into Franklin County after crossing the Arkansas River.

An F1 tornado that first touched down on Franklin County, crossed briefly into Logan county northwest of Roseville before moving back into Franklin County. The tornado moved through a rural part of the county with no damage reported.

This is the segment of the tornado that briefly exited Franklin County as it crossed a corner of Logan County and then returned into Franklin County after crossing the Arkansas River. It dissipated as it entered Denning due to an intense RFD wind coming around a storm to its north.

An F1 tornado touched down 1 mile west of Altus and crossed the Johnson County border 6 miles northeast of Altus. The tornado first began doing damage just southwest of Highway 64. The strongest intensity began just south of Interstate 40, just east of Wiederkerh Village and continued across Interstate 40 into Philpott Valley where most of the property damage occurred. The tornado resulted in F1 damage to several houses. Several mobile homes, numerous barns, outbuildings, and other weaker structures were destroyed, including two long turkey houses.

A F0 tornado touched down 2 miles northeast of Altus and crossed into Johnson County 5 miles northeast of Altus. The tornado did tree damage, caused minor damage to a few homes and also blew down power lines.

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

12 minutes of warning. NWS TSA issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:13 UTC, 12 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:00 UTC.

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 01:06 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 Western Arkansas radar (KSRX), 47 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:26 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 2001 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are

7 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.