Tornadoes · United States · Arkansas · 2009

EF0 tornado, Crossroads to Guernsey, Arkansas, May 9, 2009

From Crossroads to Guernsey, this EF0 tornado ran 5.5 miles across Hempstead County on May 9, 2009, touching down at 2:30 PM CDT and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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
May 9, 2009
Touchdown
2:30 PM CDT (19:30 UTC)
Lifted
2:40 PM CDT (19:40 UTC)
On the ground
10 minutes
Path length
5.5 miles (8.9 km)
Path width
75 yards (69 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Hempstead County
Touchdown point
33.695, -93.751
Lift-off point
33.649, -93.672
Record number
0905091330-01

What the Weather Service recorded

By the afternoon of May 9th through May 10th, the atmosphere became very unstable across the region and storms produced large hail and damaging thunderstorm wind gusts across northeast Texas, southeast Oklahoma and southwest Arkansas. Locally heavy rainfall also produced flash flooding across much of the region as well.

Several trees were snapped and uprooted beginning along the intersection of CR 10 and Hwy 195 including a tree on a powerline. Trees were snapped along CR 10 to the intersection of CR 10 and CR 2. The tornado lifted just south of I-30 near the weigh station west of Hope where several trees were snapped and uprooted���including one onto I-30. Maximum winds are estimated at 65-70 mph.

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

The warnings

21 minutes of warning. NWS SHV issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:09 UTC, 21 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:15 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 17:54 UTC and running to 01:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
17:54 UTC01:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchSHV
19:05 UTC20:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningSHV
19:09 UTC20:15 UTCTornado WarningSHV
20:03 UTC20:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningSHV
21:06 UTC01:40 UTCFlash Flood WatchSHV
21:07 UTC00:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningSHV
23:56 UTC03:45 UTCFlash Flood WarningSHV

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. The outlook in force was issued at 16:07 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), 12:00Z

7.5 hours before the tornado, 133 km from the path. May 9, 2009.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA at 12:00Z on 2009-05-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 649 joules per kilogram, CIN -346, lifted condensation level 829 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 2009-05-09The 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 207 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 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
649 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-346 J/kg
Surface CAPE
899 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
829 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
207 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
198 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.9
0-3 km lapse rate
3.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 00:00Z

4.5 hours after it, 133 km from the path. May 10, 2009.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA at 00:00Z on 2009-05-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1854 joules per kilogram, CIN -40, lifted condensation level 737 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 2009-05-10The 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 80 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 36 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
1854 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-40 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1148 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
737 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
36 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
80 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
164 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.5
Supercell composite
8.2
0-3 km lapse rate
6.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 136 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:30 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
19:10 UTCTORNADO2 E AshdownLittle River, AREF0 TORNADO OCCURRED NEAR ASHDOWN ARKANSAS ALONG A 2.4 MILE LONG PATH THAT WAS 75 YARDS WIDE. MANY TREES WERE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED ALONG THE PATH.
19:10 UTCTORNADOE AshdownLittle River, AREFO TORNADO SNAPPED SEVERAL TREES NEAR HWY 32 EAST OF ASHDOWN. MORE TREES WERE UPROOTED ALONG HWY 32 NEAR JACK ISLE RD.
19:15 UTCTSTM WND DMG8 E AshdownLittle River, ARTREES DOWN ALL AROUND MILLWOOD LAKE
19:23 UTCTSTM WND DMGHopeHempstead, ARSHERIFFS OFFICE REPORTS MULTIPLE TREES DOWN ACROSS COUNTY
19:30 UTCTORNADO5 Ene McnabHempstead, AREF0 TORNADO OCCURRED NEAR MCNAB ARKANSAS ALONG A 5.8 MILE LONG PATH THAT WAS 75 YARDS WIDE. SEVERAL TREES WERE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED ALONG THE PATH.
19:30 UTCTORNADOW HopeHempstead, ARAN EF0 TORNADO SNAPPED SEVERAL TREES AT THE INTERSECTION OF CR 10 AND HWY 195. TREES WERE ALSO SNAPPED NEAR CR 10 AND CR 2. THE TORNADO LIFTED JUST SOUTH OF I30 NEAR THE WEIGHT STATION WEST OF HOPE WHERE SEVERAL TREES WE
19:47 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 E FultonHempstead, ARTREES DOWNED ALONG I-30 FROM MM 24 TO MM 26.
19:59 UTCTSTM WND DMGGarlandMiller, ARTREES AND POWERLINES DOWNED ALONG HWY 196 AND 134
20:05 UTCTSTM WND DMGGarlandMiller, ARTREES DOWNED.
20:10 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 W BodcawNevada, ARTREES DOWN ALONG HIGHWAY 32
20:10 UTCTSTM WND GST 60StampsLafayette, AR

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 May 9, 2009

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 92:10 PM CDTEF0Little River, AR2.375
May 95:04 PM EDTEF1Orange, VT0.675$125,000

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.