Tornadoes · United States · Arkansas · 2007

EF0 tornado, Oak Grove, Arkansas, March 1, 2007

This EF0 tornado ran 2.0 miles across Carroll County on March 1, 2007, touching down at 4:28 AM CST and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. EF2111 to 135 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. EF3136 to 165 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. EF4166 to 200 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. EF5over 200 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
EF0
Date
March 1, 2007
Touchdown
4:28 AM CST (10:28 UTC)
Lifted
4:30 AM CST (10:30 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
2.0 miles (3.2 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
Carroll County
Touchdown point
36.419, -93.392
Lift-off point
36.428, -93.364
Record number
0703010428-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A moist, unstable air mass had developed across northwestern Arkansas ahead of a strong upper level disturbance that moved across the Southern Plains during the early morning hours of the 1st. Thunderstorms erupted along and ahead of a cold front as it moved across the area.

A tornado snapped trees and damaged a chicken house.

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

The warnings

15 minutes of warning. NWS TSA issued a tornado warning for this county at 10:13 UTC, 15 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 10:41 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 07:32 UTC and running to 14:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
07:32 UTC14:00 UTCTornado WatchTSA
10:03 UTC11:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTSA
10:13 UTC10:41 UTCTornado WarningTSA

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 06:14 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), 00:00Z

10.5 hours before the tornado, 65 km from the path. March 1, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Springfield, MO at 00:00Z on 2007-03-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 283 joules per kilogram, CIN -105, lifted condensation level 1189 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 00:00Z on 2007-03-01The 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 148 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 52 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
283 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-105 J/kg
Surface CAPE
385 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1189 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
52 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
148 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
243 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
0.7
0-3 km lapse rate
6.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Springfield, MO (KSGF), 12:00Z

1.5 hours after it, 65 km from the path. March 1, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Springfield, MO at 12:00Z on 2007-03-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 232 joules per kilogram, CIN -14, lifted condensation level 890 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 2007-03-01The 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 15 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
232 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-14 J/kg
Surface CAPE
835 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
890 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
53 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
15 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
90 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
6.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Springfield radar (KSGF), 90 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 10:27 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
10:20 UTCTSTM WND DMGBerryvilleCarroll, ARFOUR INCH TREE LIMBS BLOWN DOWN.
11:15 UTCHAIL 0.752 Se Gum SpringsNewton, AR

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2007 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of March 1, 2007

42 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 11:30 AM CSTEF0Monroe, MO2.150
March 11:40 AM CSTEF1Monroe, MO3.460
March 11:43 AM CSTEF1Monroe, MO8.6100
March 16:24 AM CSTEF3Ozark, MO15.02001$760,000
March 19:50 AM CSTEF0Catahoula Parish, LA0.550
March 110:45 AM CSTEF0Union, IL1.8150$100,000
March 111:20 AM CSTEF0Santa Rosa, FL0.530$8,000
March 111:58 AM CSTEF1Yazoo, MS6.5100$90,000
March 112:05 PM CSTEF0Butler, AL3.130$20,000
March 112:27 PM CSTEF4Millers Ferry tornado, AL6.150012$2.0 million
March 112:31 PM CSTEF1Dallas, AL12.2500$250,000
March 112:47 PM CSTEF0Macon, IL1.0301$37,000
March 11:08 PM CSTEF4Enterprise tornado, AL10.3500950$250 million
March 11:48 PM CSTEF1Dale, AL7.11504$2.5 million
March 11:52 PM CSTEF1Henry, AL to GA30.81502$11 million
March 12:20 PM CSTEF1Todd, KY0.230$35,000
March 12:48 PM CSTEF2Lowndes, AL24.66006$700,000
March 12:59 PM CSTEF1Fayette, AL11.2150$50,000
March 13:00 PM CSTEF1Tuscaloosa, AL3.7100$50,000
March 14:11 PM ESTEF1Stewart, GA1.5250$400,000
March 13:12 PM CSTEF1Barbour, AL2.475
March 13:45 PM CSTEF2Winston, AL9.6100$50,000
March 14:06 PM CSTEF1Jefferson, AL0.9400$100,000
March 15:29 PM ESTEF2Taylor, GA7.744814$500,000
March 15:34 PM ESTEF3Crawford, GA9.74489$525,000
March 15:49 PM ESTEF1Crawford, GA11.9100$100,000
March 15:51 PM ESTEF0Bibb, GA2.5100$100,000
March 15:27 PM CSTEF2Muscogee, AL to GA11.73001$28 million
March 16:30 PM ESTEF1Jones, GA3.6150$500,000
March 16:44 PM ESTEF0Jones, GA0.050$5,000
March 15:56 PM CSTEF1Shelby, AL0.7100$30,000
March 17:00 PM ESTEF1Talbot, GA4.1100$50,000
March 18:08 PM ESTEF2Warren, GA11.74483$700,000
March 19:00 PM ESTEF3Webster, GA40.11,790211$111 million
March 19:36 PM ESTEF3Macon, GA3.11,790$2,000
March 110:30 PM ESTEF0Bleckley, GA1.4448$250,000
March 110:40 PM ESTEF2Wilkinson, GA13.3895$30,000
March 110:52 PM ESTEF1Marion, GA2.5100$25,000
March 111:44 PM ESTEF2Baker, GA30.520063$4.0 million
March 112:20 AM ESTEF2Worth, GA4.51502$275,000
March 112:30 AM ESTEF2Worth, GA2.9200$500,000
March 112:42 AM ESTEF1Tift, GA7.9150$1.4 million

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.