EF2 tornado, White to Berlin, Arkansas, April 9, 2009

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 mph

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

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

April 9, 2009

Touchdown

11:27 PM CDT (04:27 UTC)

Lifted

11:47 PM CDT (04:47 UTC)

On the ground

20 minutes

Path length

13.6 miles (21.9 km)

Path width

600 yards (549 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$600,000

Crop damage

$50,000

County

Ashley County

Touchdown point

33.013, -92.001

Lift-off point

33.036, -91.768

Record number

0904092227-01

During the afternoon and evening of April 9th and overnight hours of the 10th, an outbreak of severe storms and tornadoes occurred across the ArkLaMiss region and pushed east through northern Louisiana and into northern Mississippi. While the majority of the severe weather occurred out of the NWS Jackson, MS service area, several reports of large hail and wind damage were reported along with a few tornadoes. One of the strongest storms moved east across Ashley County Arkansas. This storm produced an EF2 tornado over the southwest and southern sections, and contained a swath of quarter to golf ball sized hail which occurred across the entire length of the county.||In looking at this event, which occurred over two days (April 9-10), in a regional view, this was likely the biggest severe weather and tornado outbreak during the spring of 2009. This event contained numerous strong tornadoes along with hundreds of large hail reports which stretched from the Southern Plains to several other southern States.

The tornado tracked across rural southern Ashley County and snapped and uprooted hundreds of large hardwood and softwood trees. Forty two homes were damaged with approximately 15 homes that were heavily damaged or destroyed. The most intense damage was along Meridian Church Road in southwest Ashley County. Here, intense tree damage resulted in several cross roads being blocked by dozens of trees, and several mobile homes and houses were destroyed by the winds and fallen trees. This was the area rated EF2 with 130 mph winds. Over the last several miles of the track, the tornado was narrower and damage was primarily in the EF1 category.

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

19 minutes of warning. NWS JAN issued a tornado warning for this county at 04:08 UTC, 19 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 05:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 03:48 UTC and running to 07:54 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 General Thunderstorms Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:55 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.

Bastrop (BQP), 30 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 194 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:28 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 2009 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are

21 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.