EF1 tornado, Peytonville to Millwood, Arkansas, April 4, 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 4, 2011

Touchdown

8:10 AM CDT (13:10 UTC)

Lifted

8:15 AM CDT (13:15 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

4.8 miles (7.8 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$25,000

County

Little River County

Touchdown point

33.675, -94.096

Lift-off point

33.679, -94.012

Record number

1104040710-01

A strong upper level short wave move from west to east across the Central Plains states of the U.S. driving a cold front southeast into the Four State Region. Strong to severe thunderstorms formed in the unstable air mass ahead of the cold front. The front and at least 3 lines of thunderstorms moved through the Four State Region from west to east during the day. Strong low level shear in the atmosphere allowed some thunderstorms to rotate, producing tornadoes with damaging straight line winds producing downbursts.

The National Weather Service conducted a storm survey in Little River County Arkansas and concluded that the bulk of the storm damage was the result of a downburst and straight line winds. However���further investigation of the damage area southeast of Ashdown indicate damage from an EF1 tornado. The tornado touched down at around 8:10 AM, on the southeast side of Ashdown along Hwy 32. The tornado snapped and uprooted trees along CR 700 where a metal building with steel beam frame was completely destroyed. Tornado evidence is more conclusive east of this area where trees were uprooted and snapped along a convergent path. The tornado continued east south of hwy 32 snapping more trees and collapsing a carport. The tornado crossed CR 35 snapping a few trees before lifting. Maximum winds are estimated at 95-105 mph.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 12:50 UTC and running to 16:04 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 13:11 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 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.

Texarkana Regional/Webb (TXK), 26 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 138 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 13:09 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

42 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.