F2 tornado, Carmi, Arkansas, May 4, 2003

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

May 4, 2003

Touchdown

7:39 PM CDT (00:39 UTC)

Path length

15.0 miles (24.1 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$400,000

Counties

Mississippi and Craighead counties

Touchdown point

35.870, -90.330

Lift-off point

35.900, -90.130

Record number

941

The tornado moved into Mississippi County from Craighead County and continued to move northeast. Three homes were destroyed and several others were damaged. A car was damaged when a tree fell on it. Six farm pivots were damaged.

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

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

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, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 20:19 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.

NWS Memphis, TN wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at May 4, 2:49 PM CDT, 4 hours 50 minutes earlier.

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MEMPHIS TN
249 PM CDT SUN MAY 4 2003

QUIET WEATHER CURRENTLY OVER THE MID-SOUTH WHICH SHOULD NOT LAST
LONG. SURFACE LOW MOVING INTO SOUTHEAST NEBRASKA WITH DRY-LINE
EXTENDING SOUTH INTO NORTH CENTRAL TEXAS. AS THIS LOW CONTINUES TO
TRACK NORTHEAST AND DRY-LINE MOVES EAST...THUNDERSTORMS SHOULD
DEVELOP TONIGHT AND EVENTUALLY MOVE INTO THE REGION. SEVERE WEATHER
POSSIBLE TONIGHT AND INTO THE DAY MONDAY. COLD FRONT SHOULD MAKES
ITS WAY INTO THE REGION TUESDAY BUT RETREAT BACK NORTH AS A WARM
FRONT BY WEDNESDAY. UNSETTLED SHOULD CONTINUE THROUGHOUT THE WEEK
WITH AT LEAST A CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS FROM THE NEXT SEVERAL DAYS.

PRELIMINARY NUMBERS
MEM 69/82/69/82/67 745
MKL 68/81/67/81/66 755
JBR 67/82/65/81/65 733
TUP 69/81/67/83/68 666

.MEG...NONE.

ARZ008-009-017-018-026>028-035-036-048-049-058-MOZ113-115-MSZ001>017-
020>024-TNZ001>004-019>021-048>055-088>092-051000-

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK...UPDATED
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MEMPHIS TN
335 PM CDT SUN MAY 4 2003

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR NORTHEAST ARKANSAS...NORTH
MISSISSIPPI...WEST TENNESSEE AND THE MISSOURI BOOTHEEL.

.DAY ONE...TONIGHT

THERE IS A MODERATE RISK OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS THIS AFTERNOON AND
TONIGHT ACROSS EAST ARKANSAS...THE MISSOURI BOOTHEEL...MUCH OF WEST
TENNESSEE AND NORTH MISSISSIPPI. THE RISK AREA IS GENERALLY WEST OF
A LINE FROM PITTSBORO TO PARIS. THERE IS A SLIGHT RISK OF SEVERE
THUNDERSTORMS ELSEWHERE ACROSS THE MID-SOUTH.

THUNDERSTORMS WILL DEVELOP AHEAD OF A FRONTAL BOUNDARY THIS
AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT. STORMS WILL LIKELY FORM IN THE LATE AFTERNOON
AND LAST THROUGH MUCH OF THE NIGHT. THE MAIN THREAT FROM THESE
STORMS WILL BE LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING...HOWEVER SOME TORNADOES ARE
ALSO POSSIBLE.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...

A SLIGHT TO MODERATE RISK OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WILL SET UP MONDAY
AND LAST INTO MONDAY NIGHT. ISOLATED TORNADOES...DAMAGING WIND AND
HAIL COULD ACCOMPANY THESE STORMS. ANOTHER BATCH OF SEVERE STORMS COULD
DEVELOP TUESDAY NIGHT AND WEDNESDAY.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS LIKELY.

STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO AND OTHER LOCAL MEDIA FOR FURTHER
DETAILS OR UPDATES. FOR ADDITIONAL WEATHER INFORMATION...CHECK OUR
WEB SITE AT HTTP://WWW.SRH.NOAA.GOV/MEG.

In the hours before

MOZ113-050015-

SIGNIFICANT WEATHER ADVISORY
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MEMPHIS TN
625 PM CDT SUN MAY 4 2003

THIS SIGNIFICANT WEATHER ADVISORY IS FOR...DUNKLIN COUNTY.

A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WAS LOCATED 20 MILES WEST OF KENNETT AT 625 PM
CDT...MOVING NORTHEAST AT 40 MPH.

PEOPLE IN DUNKLIN COUNTY...INCLUDING THE CITIES OF CAMPBELL AND
KENNETT...SHOULD MONITOR THIS STORM CLOSELY.

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 live radar over the trackEvery 2003 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are

80 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 81 of them

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.