EF1 tornado, Ragtown to Postelle, 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 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

January 22, 2012

Touchdown

9:03 PM CST (03:03 UTC)

Lifted

9:11 PM CST (03:11 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

8.4 miles (13.6 km)

Path width

250 yards (229 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$325,000

Counties

Monroe and Phillips counties

Touchdown point

34.485, -91.126

Lift-off point

34.570, -91.020

Record number

1201222103-01

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.

A low pressure system developed over the Southern Plains and moved to the northeast. The strong low pressure system had moved to the Kansas and Missouri border by the time the event started. A very strong low-level jet, along with a very strong jet stream, moved across the Mid-South during the evening hours. An upper level short wave moved across Arkansas during the early evening hours. This short wave was the focus of thunderstorm development which produced severe thunderstorms over parts of East Arkansas.

A large shed was flipped over the top of a quonset-shaped farm shop. Large holes were ripped into the sides of the shop. An irrigation pivot was overturned, tin was torn off tractor sheds and other types of sheds, and power poles and trees were blown down. The tornado exited Monroe County south-southeast of Palmer and entered Phillips County southwest of Postelle.

The tornado moved into Phillips County from Monroe County and continued to move northeast. A large storage shed was tossed over a farm building. A few trees were knocked down and minor tree damage was noted. A couple of irrigation pivots were overturned. Some grain bins were also dented towards the top.

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

36 minutes of warning. NWS LZK issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:27 UTC, 36 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 23:20 UTC and running to 04:52 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), 114 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:03 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.