EF1 tornado, Ward to Culler, Arkansas, April 15, 2011

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 15, 2011

Touchdown

2:09 AM CDT (07:09 UTC)

Lifted

2:16 AM CDT (07:16 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

6.8 miles (10.9 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

Property damage

$455,000

Counties

Pulaski and Lonoke counties

Touchdown point

34.599, -92.147

Lift-off point

34.629, -92.033

Record number

1104150109-01

A cold front and strong area of low pressure aloft approached Arkansas on the 14th. The result was an outbreak of severe weather from the evening of the 14th through the pre-dawn hours of the 15th. Several tornadoes occurred. Additionally, storms developed into line segments which often bowed out, creating damaging thunderstorm winds.

A tornado downed trees and power lines before tracking into an industrial park at the Port of Little Rock, where the worst damage occurred. A number of power poles were knocked down, one industrial building had damage to its walls, and another industrial building suffered roof damage.

This tornado exited Saline County northeast of Lakeside and entered Pulaski County west-northwest of Woodson. In Pulaski County, many trees were blown down, with one of the trees falling on a house. Shingles were blown off a number of houses.

A tornado touched down near the Arkansas River levee and tracked through the Lands End Plantation. On the plantation, the trailer of a tractor-trailer truck was overturned, an old cotton gin was destroyed, and a 150 year-old pecan orchard was severely damaged. After leaving the plantation, numerous large trees were blown down and outbuildings were damaged. A mobile home was destroyed and its occupant was badly injured. Another mobile home was knocked off its foundation. A 250-gallon propane tank was ripped from its foundation and came unplugged. The tornado exited Pulaski County north-northeast of Wampoo and continued into Lonoke County west-southwest of Willow Belle.

This tornado exited Pulaski County north-northeast of Wampoo and entered Lonoke County west-southwest of Willow Belle. In Lonoke County, most of the tornado's track was across open farm fields. A few trees were blown down.

A tornado destroyed 51 large steel power transmission towers. These towers carried 500 kilovolt transmission lines. For the most part, the towers fell into open farm fields, but one fell into a pond on a fish farm. The power cables that fell with the towers blocked a number of roads, including Arkansas Highway 31. Power poles, power lines, and trees were blown down as well.

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

13 minutes of warning. NWS LZK issued a tornado warning for this county at 06:56 UTC, 13 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 07:23 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 02:10 UTC and running to 07:21 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. The outlook in force was issued at 05:52 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.

Little Rock/Adams (LIT), 18 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Little Rock radar (KLZK), 29 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:10 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 2011 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are

74 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 75 of them

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.