EF2 tornado, Ferndale to Warsaw, Arkansas, April 25, 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 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 25, 2011

Touchdown

6:48 PM CDT (23:48 UTC)

Lifted

7:59 PM CDT (00:59 UTC)

On the ground

71 minutes

Path length

51.3 miles (82.6 km)

Path width

2,900 yards (2652 m)

Deaths

4

Injuries

16

Property damage

$53 million

Counties

Pulaski and Faulkner counties

Touchdown point

34.806, -92.608

Lift-off point

35.310, -91.947

Record number

1104251748-02

From the 24th through the 27th, the arrival of a slow-moving cold front and several low pressure areas aloft triggered several rounds of thunderstorms. Tornadoes, severe storms, and flash flooding resulted. Widespread areal flooding followed the flash flooding. Some of this flooding was due to heavy rain, while some of it was caused by water from rivers, creeks, and bayous backing up onto the land. On the evening of the 25th, devastating tornadoes affected several areas in central Arkansas. More than 140,000 electric customers in Arkansas lost power. Heavy rains during this period were the beginning of the Great Flood of 2011 in Arkansas. Much of the flooding lasted well into May, and some even continued all the way to late June.

This was the beginning of the tornado that was destined to cause major damage in Vilonia. In this section of Pulaski County, most of the damage consisted of trees being blown down. In addition, four large power transmission towers near the Arkansas River were destroyed. The tornado exited Pulaski County 1.31 miles northeast of Natural Steps and continued into Faulkner County 2.42 miles south of Palarm.

This tornado occurred west of Lake Maumelle, in the area around Arkansas Highway 10 and Bringle Creek Rd. The tornado blew down many trees, with one tree falling on a vehicle and another on a farm tractor. Fences were knocked down and outbuildings were damaged.

This tornado exited Pulaski County 1.31 miles northeast of Natural Steps and moved into Faulkner County 2.42 miles south of Palarm. It crossed a tiny, peninsula-shaped area of Faulkner County adjacent to the Arkansas River. This section of Faulkner County is uninhabited, so damage was limited to some trees being blown down. The tornado then exited Faulkner County 2.06 miles south of Palarm and entered another section of Pulaski County 1.93 miles northeast of Natural Steps.

This tornado exited Faulkner County 2.06 miles south of Palarm and re-entered Pulaski County 1.93 miles northeast of Natural Steps. In Pulaski County, the tornado badly damaged a small church, blew a tree down into a house, and knocked down numerous trees. The tornado crossed Interstate 40 in extreme northern Pulaski County. It exited Pulaski County north-northwest of Morgan and re-entered Faulkner County east-southeast of Mayflower.

This tornado knocked down or snapped numerous trees and a few power lines. Several houses had roof damage from falling trees. One house had a gutter ripped off and one of the eaves damaged by a falling tree.

This tornado exited Pulaski County north-northwest of Morgan and re-entered Faulkner County east-southeast of Mayflower. In Faulkner County, it first moved through the northwest part of Camp Joseph T. Robinson, a National Guard facility. Thousands of trees were blown down in the area of Arkansas Highway 89 and Clinton Rd. In addition, numerous power lines were blown down and some homes and outbuildings were damaged. Similar damage occurred as the tornado continued moving to the northeast. At the Black Oak Ranch Estates mobile home park, numerous mobile homes were destroyed and four people were killed. Two of the victims, a 63 year-old man and a 55 year-old man, were in separate mobile homes. The other two victims, a man and his wife, both 45 years-old, had left their mobile home and taken shelter in a large, metal, intermodal shipping container. The tornado carried the container approximately 150 yards, depositing it on the bank of a pond. The tornado next moved through Vilonia, causing damage to residences over a large part of the town. Businesses along U.S. Highway 64 were also damaged. Also on the highway, two tractor-trailers overturned, with one of them spilling its load of food products. After leaving Vilonia, the tornado continued on to the northeast. Additional trees were blown down, and houses and outbuildings were damaged or destroyed. The Red Cross indicated that approximately 34 houses and 62 mobile homes were destroyed, 91 houses and 41 mobile homes suffered major damage, 145 houses and 43 mobile homes had minor damage, and 53 houses and 38 mobile homes were affected. The tornado then exited Faulkner County south of Mount Vernon and moved into White County west of Hammonsville.

Most of this tornado's path was through Little Rock Air Force Base. At least five C-130 aircraft were damaged, three of them severely. A number of buildings in the base shopping area and flight line area suffered damage, including having roofs torn off. The fire station had its roof taken off and its doors buckled. Altogether, more than 20 tons of sheet metal from roofs and buildings was recovered for recycling. Cars were overturned in the parking lot of the Base Exchange. More than 135 houses in the base housing area were damaged or destroyed. A toilet from a house in the base housing area was found lodged in the roof of the Base Exchange shopping center, more than 1/2 mile away. Four people were injured at the air base. North Pulaski High School also suffered damage. The auditorium had its roof torn off and one wall collapsed. A wall of the chemistry building collapsed, weakening the roof of a building that housed 15 classrooms.

The deaths

4 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

27 minutes of warning. NWS LZK issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:21 UTC, 27 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:25 UTC and running to 04:00 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:48 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 Little Rock radar (KLZK), 25 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:48 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

45 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.