EF1 tornado, Slocomb to Collegeville, Arkansas, April 3, 2008

1. EF065 to 85 mph

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

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

EF1

Date

April 3, 2008

Touchdown

9:02 PM CDT (02:02 UTC)

Lifted

9:19 PM CDT (02:19 UTC)

On the ground

17 minutes

Path length

8.1 miles (13.0 km)

Path width

500 yards (457 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

Property damage

$5.0 million

County

Saline County

Touchdown point

34.508, -92.740

Lift-off point

34.572, -92.620

Record number

0804032002-01

The event began with a warm front moving north from the Gulf Coast region on the 3rd. The front was followed by above normal temperatures and abundant moisture. There was plenty of fuel for developing thunderstorms. A large area of showers and thunderstorms developed near the stalled front in northern and western Arkansas during the evening of the 3rd. |During the early morning hours of the 4th, it became a heavy rain event.

A tornado began west of Haskell and continued on to just west of Benton. The tornado destroyed nine houses and three mobile homes, caused major damage to approximately 16 houses and one mobile home, and minor damage to approximately 40 houses and one mobile home. One house that was under construction had all its framing completed and was ready for shingles to be put on. The tornado blew all the framing lumber down a hillside, but the concrete safe room that had been constructed remained intact. Many power lines and some power poles were blown down. Thousands of trees were blown down.

A tornado began on the northeast side of Benton and ended on the northwest side of Bryant. The tornado caused major damage to four houses and minor damage to 20 houses. It also traveled through the Hurricane Lake Mobile Home Park, destroying 22 mobile homes, and causing major damage to 11 mobile homes, and minor damage to 10 mobile homes. Major damage occurred at a car dealership on Interstate 30, where more than 150 vehicles were damaged, many of which had windshields or rear windows blown out. Diagonally across the interstate from the car dealership, a lumber yard suffered substantial damage.

A tornado began northwest of Bryant and ended northwest of Alexander. The tornado caused major damage in the Hurricane Meadows subdivision, and then continued on to the northeast. Altogether, six houses were destroyed, and approximately 30 others suffered varying degrees of damage.

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

25 minutes of warning. NWS LZK issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:37 UTC, 25 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:30 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 01:22 UTC and running to 07:50 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:18 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 Little Rock radar (KLZK), 50 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:02 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 2008 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.