Tornadoes · United States · Arkansas · 2005

F1 tornado, Woodberry, Arkansas, December 3, 2005

This F1 tornado ran 2.7 miles across Calhoun County on December 3, 2005, touching down at 10:18 PM CST and reaching 40 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
December 3, 2005
Touchdown
10:18 PM CST (04:18 UTC)
Path length
2.7 miles (4.3 km)
Path width
40 yards (37 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Calhoun County
Touchdown point
33.580, -92.500
Lift-off point
33.570, -92.450
Record number
602

What the Weather Service recorded

A weak tornado touched down briefly in Calhoun County, about 1.5 miles east-southeast of Woodberry. The tornado was on the ground for about 2.7 miles before dissipating 3 miles north-northeast of Hampton. The only damage noted along the path of the tornado were some trees broken off or uprooted.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 04:05 UTC and running to 06:03 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
03:49 UTC04:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLZK
04:05 UTC06:03 UTCTornado WatchLZK
04:20 UTC04:37 UTCTornado 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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 01:00 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.

Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 00:00Z

4.3 hours before the tornado, 170 km from the path. December 4, 2005.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA at 00:00Z on 2005-12-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 854 joules per kilogram, CIN -94, lifted condensation level 1424 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Shreveport, LA at 00:00Z on 2005-12-04The 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 170 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 53 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
854 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-94 J/kg
Surface CAPE
803 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1424 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
53 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
170 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
194 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.4
Supercell composite
1.6
0-3 km lapse rate
6.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 12:00Z

7.7 hours after it, 170 km from the path. December 4, 2005.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA at 12:00Z on 2005-12-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -2796, lifted condensation level 963 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km-30°-20°-10°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, Shreveport, LA at 12:00Z on 2005-12-04The 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 0 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 0 knots.1939Sfc1 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-2796 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
963 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
0 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
0 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
0 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
0 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Little Rock radar (KLZK), 142 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:19 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
03:53 UTCHAIL 0.88East CamdenOuachita, AR
04:15 UTCTSTM WND GST 656 N HamptonCalhoun, AR
04:15 UTCHAIL 16 N HamptonCalhoun, AR
04:25 UTCFUNNEL CLOUDTinsmanCalhoun, AR
04:25 UTCHAIL 1Harmony GroveOuachita, AR

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2005 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of December 3, 2005

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
December 311:03 PM CSTF0Drew, AR2.730

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.