Tornadoes · United States · Arkansas · 2006

F1 tornado, Wickes, Arkansas, September 21, 2006

This F1 tornado ran 2.2 miles across Polk County on September 21, 2006, touching down at 8:14 PM CDT 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
September 21, 2006
Touchdown
8:14 PM CDT (01:14 UTC)
Path length
2.2 miles (3.5 km)
Path width
40 yards (37 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Polk County
Touchdown point
34.330, -94.370
Lift-off point
34.330, -94.330
Record number
896

What the Weather Service recorded

A weak tornado was spawned in southern Polk County. The tornado tracked from 2.8 miles northwest of Wickes to 2 miles north of Wickes. The tornado downed or snapped dozens of trees, with two houses damaged and a parked automobile crushed by fallen trees. Two storage buildings were also overturned.

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
02:35 UTC09:39 UTCTornado WatchLZK
03:04 UTC04:00 UTCTornado WarningLZK
12:00 UTC19:49 UTCLake Wind AdvisoryLZK
14:10 UTC23:30 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 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 00:48 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

1.2 hours before the tornado, 213 km from the path. September 22, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA at 00:00Z on 2006-09-22Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 390 joules per kilogram, CIN -178, lifted condensation level 681 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, Shreveport, LA at 00:00Z on 2006-09-22The 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 324 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
390 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-178 J/kg
Surface CAPE
111 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
681 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
55 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
324 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
410 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
8.4
0-3 km lapse rate
4.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 12:00Z

10.8 hours after it, 213 km from the path. September 22, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA at 12:00Z on 2006-09-22Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2537 joules per kilogram, CIN -25, lifted condensation level 693 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, Shreveport, LA at 12:00Z on 2006-09-22The 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 236 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 37 knots.193958Sfc1 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
2537 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-25 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2443 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
693 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
236 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
161 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.8
Supercell composite
9.1
0-3 km lapse rate
5.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Western Arkansas radar (KSRX), 107 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:12 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
03:15 UTCTSTM WND DMGBogg SpringsPolk, ARTIN OFF CHICKEN HOUSE.
03:23 UTCTSTM WND DMGGrannisPolk, ARTREES DOWN.
03:23 UTCHAIL 0.75HatfieldPolk, 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 September 21, 2006

14 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 211:53 PM CDTF1Russell, KS6.075$100,000
September 212:30 PM CDTF0Vermilion Parish, LA1.020$10,000
September 213:13 PM CDTF0Lincoln, KS17.0300$30,000
September 213:36 PM CDTF0Mitchell, KS6.0100
September 214:03 PM CDTF0Mitchell, KS6.050
September 214:16 PM CDTF0Lincoln, KS0.335
September 214:30 PM CDTF0Ottawa, KS0.130
September 214:55 PM CDTF0Ottawa, KS0.130
September 216:20 PM CDTF0Vermilion Parish, LA1.020$10,000
September 216:48 PM CDTF1Vermilion Parish, LA2.050$100,000
September 216:55 PM CDTF0Saint Martin Parish, LA1.020
September 218:10 PM CDTF1Atoka, OK11.0100$70,000
September 218:25 PM CDTF0Pushmataha, OK0.450$10,000
September 218:28 PM CDTF0Pushmataha, OK1.0100$20,000

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.