EF2 tornado, Linwood to De Witt Muni Arpt, Arkansas, January 22, 2012

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

January 22, 2012

Touchdown

8:15 PM CST (02:15 UTC)

Lifted

8:34 PM CST (02:34 UTC)

On the ground

19 minutes

Path length

17.0 miles (27.3 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$825,000

Counties

Jefferson and Arkansas counties

Touchdown point

34.193, -91.727

Lift-off point

34.319, -91.473

Record number

1201222015-01

The day of the 22nd began cloudy, chilly, and foggy across most of Arkansas. During the day, however, much warmer air surged northward across much of the state. In the evening, a cold front plowed into the warmth and moisture, triggering severe thunderstorms and seven tornadoes.

At a large farming operation, a shed was thrown over the top of a farm shop, damaging the roof of the shop. In addition, an empty 12,000 gallon fuel tank was overturned and rolled out into a flooded farm field. Nearby, the foundation of a concrete block house was damaged. Along U.S. 65, limbs were blown down next to a church. At the Arkansas River levee, an irrigation pivot was overturned and torn apart.

An EF2 tornado began near Sweden. Initially, it severely damaged a large metal building, draped a radio tower over the building, damaged farm machinery and grain trucks, and damaged a gas line. Nearby, several large grain bins were destroyed. Two irrigation pivots were overturned. An old house was crushed by a large tree that fell. The tornado exited Jefferson County west-northwest of Anrep and entered Arkansas County southwest of Hamptons Reservoir.

This tornado exited Jefferson County west-northwest of Anrep and entered Arkansas County southwest of Hamptons Reservoir. In Arkansas County, much of the track of the tornado was through the Bayou Meto Wildlife Management Area. Many trees were blown down. Two mobile homes suffered damage, power poles were blown down, and a farm equipment building was damaged.

Initially, the tornado badly damaged an old barn and tore the tin off a tractor shed. North of DeWitt, four large, steel transmission towers were blown down, an elevator was blown off some grain bins, a roof was damaged, and a travel trailer was overturned. Farther to the northeast, a truck trailer was blown over, trees were blown down, and tin was blown off roofs.

The tornado initially destroyed a shed and carport. Farther to the northeast, windows were broken in a house and pieces of wood were driven into the house's siding, and a shed was destroyed. A mobile home was rolled over, causing its destruction. Many of its contents were thrown out into a field. Near the DeWitt airport, a metal building was destroyed, the wall of a second metal building was pushed in, and much of the roof was torn off a tractor shed. Near the end of the tornado's path, trees and power poles were blown down.

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

50 minutes of warning. NWS LZK issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:25 UTC, 50 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 23:20 UTC and running to 03:43 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 05:59 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), 89 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:12 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 2012 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are

12 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.