EF0 tornado, Grand Lake to Eudora, Arkansas, April 18, 2013

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   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 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

EF0

Date

April 18, 2013

Touchdown

4:38 PM CDT (21:38 UTC)

Lifted

4:39 PM CDT (21:39 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.5 miles (0.7 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Chicot County

Touchdown point

33.075, -91.227

Lift-off point

33.079, -91.221

Record number

1304181538-01

1 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS JAN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 75 mph.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

Gusty southerly winds blew for several days ahead of the cold front that pushed across the Arklamiss region during the afternoon and evening of April 18, 2013. The persistent feed of moist air from the Gulf produced a warm and humid air mass that resulted in afternoon temperatures well above normal, topping out in the 80s across the forecast area Thursday afternoon. Warmer air aloft produced an atmospheric cap that prohibited thunderstorm development well ahead of the front. As a result, a squall line of severe convection developed in the vicinity of the cold front and moved across the Delta region. Much of the damage associated with the squall line was produced by two intense severe storms. The first storm moved across Ashley and Chicot Counties in southeast Arkansas during mid afternoon before tracking across Washington County in northwest Mississippi. The first storm produced an EF-1 tornado near Crossett, AR. The second storm moved across northeast Louisiana into the Mississippi Delta region, producing an EF-1 tornado near Sondheimer, Louisiana and another tornado in Nitta Yuma, Mississippi. In addition to tornadoes, severe storms along the squall line downed trees and power lines and produced golf ball sized hail. ||The squall line began to weaken as it continued across the Mississippi Delta, pulling away from the associated low pressure system and moving into a region where the air mass was more stable. Storms that remained in the remnants of the line progressed to the east, briefly strengthening as they crossed northeast Mississippi. Sporadic down burst winds continued, bringing down trees and power lines near Yazoo City and at Sturgis in Oktibbeha County.

This brief tornado touched down in an open field southeast of Eudora along US Highway 65. A picture was taken (by a trained spotter) as the tornado kicked up dust as it moved in an east northeastward direction. A condensation funnel was visible that had distinct rotation. No damage occurred. Maximum wind speeds were estimated at 75 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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:43 UTC and running to 22:36 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 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:36 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 Jackson/Brandon,MS radar (KDGX), 146 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:38 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 2013 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are

13 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.