F3 tornado, Delaplaine to Deering, Arkansas, April 2, 2006

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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

F3

Date

April 2, 2006

Touchdown

5:37 PM CDT (22:37 UTC)

Path length

77.0 miles (123.9 km)

Path width

880 yards (805 m)

Deaths

2

Injuries

177

Property damage

$86 million

Counties

Randolph, Greene, Dunklin and Pemiscot counties

Touchdown point

36.220, -90.970

Lift-off point

36.180, -89.650

Record number

233

A tornado continued to track east from Randolph County into Greene County and eventually continued into Dunklin County, Missouri. The hardest hit area was in the town of Marmaduke. Forty-seven injuries occurred in Marmaduke with two people being airlifted to a local hospital. One hundred and thirty houses were destroyed in Marmaduke with twenty-five mobile homes also being destroyed. A pharmacy was also destroyed in Marmaduke. Outside of Marmaduke, in the rest of the county, nineteen homes and 11 mobile homes were destroyed. In addition, seven houses and two mobile homes had major damage in the county. In all, approximately five hundred homes were affected.

The tornado tracked east out of Greene County, Arkansas into Dunklin County, Missouri. The tornado then continued east into Pemiscot County, Missouri. Seven homes were destroyed and thirty-three homes were damaged.

The tornado continued east out of Dunklin County into Pemiscot County. The tornado lifted near the Mississippi River. There were two fatalities in Braggadocio. One hundred thirty people were injured. The most affected area was the southern portion of Caruthersville. Two hundred twenty-six homes were destroyed and five hundred forty-two homes were damaged. In addition, the city of Caruthersville's water tower was destroyed, cutting off water access to the entire city.

The deaths

2 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

43 minutes of warning. NWS MEG issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:54 UTC, 43 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:29 UTC and running to 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:55 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 Memphis radar (KNQA), 103 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:36 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.

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

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2006 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are

66 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 67 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.