Tornadoes · United States · Arkansas · 2010
EF1 tornado, Artesian to Moro Bay, Arkansas, May 1, 2010
From Artesian to Moro Bay, this EF1 tornado ran 2.8 miles across Bradley and Calhoun counties on May 1, 2010, touching down at 6:41 PM CDT and reaching 35 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $30,000 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.
EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- EF1
- Date
- May 1, 2010
- Touchdown
- 6:41 PM CDT (23:41 UTC)
- Lifted
- 6:45 PM CDT (23:45 UTC)
- On the ground
- 4 minutes
- Path length
- 2.8 miles (4.5 km)
- Path width
- 35 yards (32 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $30,000
- Counties
- Bradley and Calhoun counties
- Touchdown point
- 33.313, -92.386
- Lift-off point
- 33.345, -92.356
- Record number
- 1005011741-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Warm and humid conditions prevailed in Arkansas on the 1st. The approach of a cold front triggered the development of thunderstorms. Wind shear, a change in wind speed and direction with height, was not as favorable for the development of tornadoes as it was on April 30th. As a result, the tornadoes that managed to form were weaker and did not stay on the ground as long as they did the day before.
An EF0 tornado blew down tree limbs on timber lands. The tornado exited Calhoun County southeast of Artesian and moved into Bradley County north-northwest of Moro Bay.
This tornado exited Calhoun County southeast of Artesian and entered Bradley County north-northwest of Moro Bay. Trees were blown down on timber land owned by a large timber company.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
13 minutes of warning. NWS LZK issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:28 UTC, 13 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:08 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:20 UTC and running to 02:53 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 08:15 UTC | 16:00 UTC | Tornado Watch | LZK |
| 20:20 UTC | 02:53 UTC | Tornado Watch | LZK |
| 23:28 UTC | 00:08 UTC | Tornado Warning | LZK |
| 00:12 UTC | 01:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | LZK |
| 00:14 UTC | 01:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | LZK |
| 02:53 UTC | 07:50 UTC | Tornado Watch | LZK |
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 High Risk, with a 0.30 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 20:11 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
11.7 hours before the tornado, 160 km from the path. May 1, 2010.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 2117 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- 0 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2329 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 477 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 45 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 34 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 185 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 260 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 2.9
- Supercell composite
- 15.3
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.7 K/km
Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 00:00Z
0.3 hours after it, 160 km from the path. May 2, 2010.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 2524 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -5 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 3466 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 952 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 68 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 24 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 207 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 228 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 2.7
- Supercell composite
- 11.3
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.4 K/km
The radar
The Little Rock radar (KLZK), 168 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:43 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:05 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 E Banks | Bradley, AR | TREE WAS BLOCKING HIGHWAY 278 JUST EAST OF BANKS. |
| 00:10 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 5 Nw El Dorado | Union, AR | A LARGE TREE WAS BLOWN DOWN ACROSS MOUNT HOLLY ROAD NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF HWY 335. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2010 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of May 1, 2010
11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 1 | 3:02 AM CDT | EF0 | Calloway, KY | 6.0 | 75 | $20,000 | ||
| May 1 | 1:34 PM CDT | EF1 | Union, MS | 10.3 | 300 | $135,000 | ||
| May 1 | 4:23 PM CDT | EF0 | Lawrence, TN | 3.1 | 100 | $10,000 | ||
| May 1 | 7:27 PM CDT | EF1 | Cleveland, AR | 0.5 | 50 | $25,000 | ||
| May 1 | 8:29 PM CDT | EF0 | Cass, TX | 0.9 | 150 | $50,000 | ||
| May 1 | 8:55 PM CDT | EF1 | Woodruff, AR | 8.7 | 200 | $400,000 | ||
| May 1 | 9:36 PM CDT | EF1 | Poinsett, AR | 6.2 | 400 | $75,000 | ||
| May 1 | 9:47 PM CDT | EF0 | Nevada, AR | 1.7 | 75 | |||
| May 1 | 9:58 PM CDT | EF0 | Craighead, AR | 0.0 | 25 | |||
| May 1 | 10:00 PM CDT | EF0 | Butler, MO | 0.5 | 175 | $1,000 | ||
| May 1 | 10:47 PM CDT | EF1 | Shelby, TN | 0.6 | 100 | $10,000 |
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.