EF1 tornado, Red Star to Mt Judea, Arkansas, April 23, 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 23, 2011

Touchdown

7:58 PM CDT (00:58 UTC)

Lifted

8:54 PM CDT (01:54 UTC)

On the ground

56 minutes

Path length

28.3 miles (45.5 km)

Path width

880 yards (805 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$500,000

Counties

Madison and Newton counties

Touchdown point

35.825, -93.531

Lift-off point

35.937, -93.045

Record number

1104231858-01

A cold front pushed into the region during the afternoon of the 22nd. Low level moisture was plentiful and atmospheric instability was high ahead of the front. Thunderstorms developed along and ahead of the front, resulting in widespread large hail, wind damage, and a few tornadoes in northwestern Arkansas. The prolonged event resulted in heavy rainfall that caused flooding in northwestern Arkansas.

A stationary front was located across the northern part of Arkansas on the evening of the 23rd. As low pressure aloft approached from the west, severe storms erupted. One of the storms, located along the front, spawned a tornado.

A tornado uprooted a few trees and snapped some large tree limbs. Maximum estimated wind in the tornado based on this damage was about 95 mph. The tornado continued into Newton County, Arkansas.

This tornado exited Madison County south of Red Star and entered Newton County north of Arbaugh. In Newton County, hundreds of trees were blown down, with several of the trees falling on houses and vehicles. A number of outbuildings were damaged. A chicken house and a barn were destroyed. The greatest amount of structural damage occurred just south of Wayton. Many power poles and power lines were blown down.

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

2 minutes of warning. NWS TSA issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:56 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:15 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 22:39 UTC and running to 05:00 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:57 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.

The Western Arkansas radar (KSRX), 117 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:59 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

11 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.