Tornadoes · United States · Arkansas · 2003

F1 tornado, Henderson to Vidette, Arkansas, April 20, 2003

From Henderson to Vidette, this F1 tornado ran 13.0 miles across Baxter and Fulton counties on April 20, 2003, touching down at 1:18 AM CDT and reaching 75 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.

  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
April 20, 2003
Touchdown
1:18 AM CDT (06:18 UTC)
Path length
13.0 miles (20.9 km)
Path width
75 yards (69 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Counties
Baxter and Fulton counties
Touchdown point
36.400, -92.200
Lift-off point
36.500, -92.030
Record number
84

What the Weather Service recorded

A weak tornado touched down 3 miles northeast of Henderson and traveled to the northeast into Fulton County. The thunderstorm spawning the tornado is the same storm that produced a tornado earlier in Mountain Home. In eastern Baxter County, an old community center which had stood for more than 100 years was flattened. This occurred near the Cumi community. One house had the back portion of its roof damaged. A shed was blown down and several vehicles were damaged by flying tin.

A weak tornado moved from Baxter County into Fulton County about 2 miles west of Vidette. The tornado traveled to the northeast for 10 miles before lifting 6 miles northeast of Vidette. Since the tornado moved across many open areas, damage along the path consisted of downed trees and little else.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
06:08 UTC06:35 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 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.

Springfield, MO (KSGF), 00:00Z

6.3 hours before the tornado, 158 km from the path. April 20, 2003.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Springfield, MO at 00:00Z on 2003-04-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 11 joules per kilogram, CIN -140, lifted condensation level 902 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, Springfield, MO at 00:00Z on 2003-04-20The 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 286 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 65 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
11 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-140 J/kg
Surface CAPE
40 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
902 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
65 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
286 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
217 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
5.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Springfield, MO (KSGF), 12:00Z

5.7 hours after it, 158 km from the path. April 20, 2003.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Springfield, MO at 12:00Z on 2003-04-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 6 joules per kilogram, CIN -152, lifted condensation level 458 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, Springfield, MO at 12:00Z on 2003-04-20The 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 131 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 65 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
6 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-152 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
458 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
65 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
131 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
219 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Mountain Home/Baxter County (BPK), 33 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
04:43 UTC6860.8180° 9 kt181010.8
04:53 UTC6861170° 8 kt1010.5
05:38 UTC66.262.6220° 6 kt1011.2VCTS -RA
05:53 UTC6362300° 9 kt151011.5+TSRA BR
06:01 UTC5959300° 5 kt1010.8+TSRA BR
06:09 UTC5959310° 9 kt141011.5+TSRA BR
06:15 UTC57.257.2 3 kt141011.2+TSRA BR
06:24 UTC5957.2220° 4 kt1011.9-TSRA BR
06:41 UTC62.660.8 6 kt1011.2TSRA BR
06:53 UTC6260200° 12 kt161011.9+TSRA BR
07:05 UTC60.860.8230° 11 kt191011.2+TSRA BR
07:13 UTC60.859230° 8 kt161011.5+TSRA BR
07:29 UTC60.859210° 9 kt1011.9TSRA BR
07:41 UTC60.859170° 6 kt1010.8VCTS -RA
07:53 UTC6059180° 9 kt1010.8-RA

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

The radar

The Springfield radar (KSGF), 144 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 06:18 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 2003 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 20, 2003

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 203:39 PM CDTF1Christian, KY0.150$1,000

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.