Tornadoes · United States · Arkansas · 2009

EF0 tornado, Sutherland Xrds, Arkansas, April 29, 2009

This EF0 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Franklin County on April 29, 2009, touching down at 5:07 PM CDT and reaching 125 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $75,000 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
April 29, 2009
Touchdown
5:07 PM CDT (22:07 UTC)
Lifted
5:08 PM CDT (22:08 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
125 yards (114 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$75,000
County
Franklin County
Touchdown point
35.530, -93.777
Lift-off point
35.540, -93.763
Record number
0904291607-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Isolated severe thunderstorms affected northwestern Arkansas during the late afternoon.

A tornado damaged six homes, destroyed a barn, and damaged numerous trees.

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
18:00 UTC00:00 UTCFlash Flood WatchTSA

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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:02 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

10.1 hours before the tornado, 152 km from the path. April 29, 2009.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Springfield, MO at 12:00Z on 2009-04-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 484 joules per kilogram, CIN -33, lifted condensation level 529 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 2009-04-29The 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 45 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 20 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
484 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-33 J/kg
Surface CAPE
592 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
529 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
45 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
107 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Springfield, MO (KSGF), 00:00Z

1.9 hours after it, 152 km from the path. April 30, 2009.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Springfield, MO at 00:00Z on 2009-04-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 538 joules per kilogram, CIN -1, lifted condensation level 588 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 2009-04-30The 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 204 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 38 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
538 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-1 J/kg
Surface CAPE
503 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
588 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
204 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
260 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.5
Supercell composite
3.3
0-3 km lapse rate
6.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Fort Smith Municipal (FSM), 58 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
20:12 UTC6862.6250° 7 kt181017.6+TSRA
20:18 UTC66.264.4240° 4 kt1017.6+TSRA BR
20:53 UTC666280° 3 kt1016.3+TSRA
21:05 UTC66.262.6100° 8 kt1015.9TSRA
21:13 UTC66.262.6120° 5 kt1015.9TSRA
21:53 UTC6764120° 13 kt1014.9TSRA
22:53 UTC6661150° 12 kt191013.5-TSRA
23:53 UTC6760140° 15 kt211012.2-TSRA
00:02 UTC66.260.8150° 9 kt211013.2-RA

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The radar

The Western Arkansas radar (KSRX), 60 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:07 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
22:00 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 Ne CombsMadison, ARTREE LIMB DAMAGE WITH A COUPLE TREES UPROOTED 4 TO 5 MILES NORTHEAST OF COMBS ON THE WEST SIDE OF HIGHWAY 295.
22:01 UTCTORNADO6 Sw WitterMadison, ARA TORNADO DAMAGED A MOBILE HOME...SEVERELY DAMAGED THE ROOF OF A LARGE STORAGE BUILDING...AND SNAPPED NUMEROUS TREE LIMBS. ESTIMATED MAXIMUM WIND SPEED IN THE TORNADO BASED ON THIS DAMAGE WAS 65 TO 75 MPH. THE TORNADO WA
22:02 UTCTSTM WND DMG6 Ne CombsMadison, ARROOF DAMAGE TO A HOME NEAR COUNTY ROAD 5320 AND BALL CREEK ROAD
22:07 UTCTORNADO4 Ne OzarkFranklin, ARPOSSIBLE TORNADO NEAR HIGHWAY 352 AND OLD KINGSTON ROAD. TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN WITH A FEW HOMES RECEIVING DEGREES OF DAMAGE.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2009 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 29, 2009

21 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 2910:11 AM CDTEF1Garvin, OK6.840
April 2911:27 AM CDTEF1Seminole, OK2.030
April 2911:40 AM CDTEF0Hughes, OK1.530
April 294:20 PM CDTEF0Hall, TX2.8100
April 294:25 PM CDTEF0Hall, TX0.850
April 295:00 PM CDTEF2Terrell, TX0.3300$5,000
April 295:01 PM CDTEF0Madison, AR3.0200$20,000
April 295:13 PM CDTEF0Floyd, TX0.375
April 296:07 PM CDTEF0Floyd, TX0.525
April 296:11 PM CDTEF1Floyd, TX4.0125$25,000
April 296:19 PM CDTEF0Floyd, TX0.875
April 296:30 PM CDTEF1Carson, TX0.925$15,000
April 296:36 PM CDTEF0Carson, TX0.125$8,000
April 296:58 PM CDTEF0Floyd, TX1.8500
April 297:00 PM CDTEF0Finney, KS0.750
April 297:26 PM CDTEF1Finney, KS2.13301$240,000
April 297:33 PM CDTEF1Finney, KS4.33301$1.3 million
April 297:37 PM CDTEF1Finney, KS1.0100$225,000
April 297:44 PM CDTEF1Haskell, KS2.4100$240,000
April 298:18 PM CDTEF0King, TX0.350
April 298:28 PM CDTEF0Dickens, TX1.875

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.