Tornadoes · United States · Arkansas · 2006

F1 tornado, Evening Star, Arkansas, March 11, 2006

This F1 tornado ran 0.8 miles across Searcy County on March 11, 2006, touching down at 11:50 PM CST and reaching 25 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
March 11, 2006
Touchdown
11:50 PM CST (05:50 UTC)
Path length
0.8 miles (1.3 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Searcy County
Touchdown point
36.020, -92.530
Lift-off point
36.030, -92.530
Record number
84

What the Weather Service recorded

A weak tornado was spawned in northern Searcy County around Evening Star. The tornado overturned a travel trailer and a lawn tractor. Tin was also removed from the roofs of two barns. A few trees were downed as well. The tornado had trouble reaching the ground, with damage confined mostly to hilltops.

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

The warnings

41 minutes of warning. NWS LZK issued a tornado warning for this county at 05:09 UTC, 41 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 06:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 00:50 UTC and running to 07:12 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
00:50 UTC07:12 UTCTornado WatchLZK
05:09 UTC06:00 UTCTornado WarningLZK
07:12 UTC08:18 UTCTornado WatchLZK
17:00 UTC06:00 UTCLake Wind AdvisoryLZK
18:48 UTC03:35 UTCTornado WatchLZK

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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:07 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.

Springfield, MO (KSGF), 12:00Z

6.2 hours after it, 150 km from the path. March 12, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Springfield, MO at 12:00Z on 2006-03-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 262 joules per kilogram, CIN -159, lifted condensation level 728 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 2006-03-12The 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 94 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 55 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
262 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-159 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
728 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
55 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
94 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
127 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.5
0-3 km lapse rate
3.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Little Rock radar (KLZK), 134 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:51 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
04:27 UTCHAIL 0.75Diamond CityBoone, AR
04:48 UTCHAIL 1.75Diamond CityBoone, AR
06:15 UTCHAIL 1NorforkBaxter, AR

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

This ground now

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

The other tornadoes of March 11, 2006

14 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 1112:12 AM CSTF1LeFlore, OK1.5100$700,000
March 1112:11 PM PSTF0San Diego, CA2.045$30,000
March 114:35 PM CSTF0Taney, MO8.020
March 115:15 PM CSTF0Pike, IL0.140
March 115:20 PM CSTF0Pike, IL0.150
March 115:50 PM CSTF0Douglas, MO0.120$10,000
March 117:50 PM CSTF0Phelps, MO3.025
March 117:55 PM CSTF2Reynolds, MO35.5450
March 118:48 PM CSTF1Madison, MO0.775
March 118:54 PM CSTF1Madison, MO11.0300
March 119:20 PM CSTF3Sainte Genevieve, MO53.5400212$2.2 million
March 119:42 PM CSTF3Monroe, MO to IL5.1200
March 119:46 PM CSTF1Monroe, IL2.4100
March 1111:26 PM CSTF1Wayne, IL1.0600$70,000

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.