F2 tornado, Banks to Orlando, Arkansas, November 26, 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 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.

Rating

F2

Date

November 26, 2001

Touchdown

5:47 PM CST (23:47 UTC)

Path length

19.8 miles (31.9 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Bradley and Cleveland counties

Touchdown point

33.580, -92.220

Lift-off point

33.780, -91.980

Record number

566

A strong tornado was spawned in northern Bradley County. The tornado first touched down 4 miles east-northeast of Banks and traveled to the northeast. The most severe damage occurred in the McKinney community, or about 7 miles northeast of Banks, where a number of mobile homes were destroyed. Several of these mobile homes were blown completely into pieces, some of which were used for storage. A couple of other houses suffered considerable damage as well. Some barns and sheds were also destroyed. The tornado continued to track into Cleveland County.

A strong tornado moved from northeast Bradley County into southeast Cleveland County. Two houses sustained major damage and several other houses had roof damage. A large farm shed was destroyed as were two barns. A chicken house also had major damage. One mobile home was destroyed and another was damaged. Several hundred trees were also blown down. The tornado lifted about 2.2 miles south-southeast of Pansy.

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

NWS Little Rock, AR wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Nov 26, 3:00 PM CST, 2 hours 47 minutes earlier.

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LITTLE ROCK AR
300 PM CST MON NOV 26 2001

A RATHER COMPLEX WEATHER SCENARIO CONTINUES TO UNFOLD. SEVERE WEATHER
TONIGHT WILL MOVE OUT AND MAKE WAY FOR A SIGNIFICANT WINTRY WEATHER
EPISODE BEGINING AS EARLY AS TUESDAY NIGHT AND CONTINUING THROUGH
MOST OF WEDNESDAY. 8H TEMPS AND THICKNESS VALUES INDICATE SNOW OVER
MOST SECTIONS.

FCSTID = 38

.LZK...NONE.

In the hours before

ARZ052>057-062>069-270000-

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LITTLE ROCK AR
107 PM CST MON NOV 26 2001

TORNADO WATCH 824 IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM. THIS WATCH IS IN EFFECT
FOR AN AREA...GENERALLY ALONG AND SOUTH OF A LINE FROM GLENWOOD...TO
STUTTGART.

ATMOSPHERIC CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED TO QUICKLY BECOME UNSTABLE THIS
AFTERNOON ACROSS THE WATCH AREA...AHEAD OF A COLD FRONT...MOVING EAST
ACROSS EASTERN OKLAHOMA AND NORTHEAST TEXAS. THE UNSTABLE
CONDITIONS...ALONG WITH VERTICAL WIND PROFILES SUGGEST THUNDERSTORMS
THAT FORM AHEAD OF THE COLD FRONT WILL DEVELOP QUICKLY...AND WILL
LIKELY BECOME SUPERCELLS.  THE SUPERCELL THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE
CAPABLE OF PRODUCING LARGE HAIL...DAMAGING WIND GUSTS...AND
TORNADOES.

STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO...COMMERCIAL TELEVISION OR RADIO
STATIONS...OR YOUR CABLE TELEVISION PROVIDER FOR LATER STATEMENTS
CONCERNING THIS SEVERE WEATHER THREAT.

55

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.

Monticello (LLQ), 33 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Little Rock radar (KLZK), 129 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:46 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

11 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.