Tornadoes · United States · Arkansas · 2013
EF0 tornado, Redfield, Arkansas, December 20, 2013
This EF0 tornado ran 1.5 miles across Jefferson County on December 20, 2013, touching down at 6:33 PM CST and reaching 150 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $100,000 of property damage.
The rating scale
Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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.
The record
- Rating
- EF0
- Date
- December 20, 2013
- Touchdown
- 6:33 PM CST (00:33 UTC)
- Lifted
- 6:35 PM CST (00:35 UTC)
- On the ground
- 2 minutes
- Path length
- 1.5 miles (2.4 km)
- Path width
- 150 yards (137 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $100,000
- County
- Jefferson County
- Touchdown point
- 34.431, -92.188
- Lift-off point
- 34.441, -92.165
- Record number
- 1312201833-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A cold front moved into northwest Arkansas on the morning of the 20th and lingered in the state until the night of the 21st. While the front was making its way slowly across the state, an area of low pressure arrived from the southwest. The result was heavy rain and flash flooding in the cooler air behind the front. In the warmer air ahead of the front, isolated tornadoes occurred.||Some of the larger rainfall totals for the 48 hours that included the 20th and 21st were: 7.92 inches 3.3 miles west of Carlisle (Lonoke Co.), 7.68 inches at Little Dixie (Woodruff Co.), 7.66 inches at Des Arc (Prairie Co.), 7.37 inches at Keo (Lonoke Co.), 6.71 inches at Georgetown (White Co.), 6.50 inches at Griffithville (White Co.), 6.45 inches at Augusta (Woodruff Co.), 6.29 inches at Chenal Valley (Pulaski County), 6.15 inches at DeGray Lake (Clark Co.), 6.12 inches 8.8 miles west of Little Rock (Pulaski Co.), and 6.00 inches 0.5 mile southwest of Beebe (White Co.). Numerous other stations reported amounts between 4 and 6 inches, especially in eastern, central, and southern parts of Arkansas.
Numerous trees were uprooted or snapped, with power lines blown down in places. A few homes had roof damage. The corner of one roof was removed, with some damage inside the house. A trampoline and swing set were thrown aloft and wrapped around trees. Several sheds were destroyed.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
What forecasters said that day
The local office's own words before the tornado touched down, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Little Rock, AR wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Dec 20, 3:49 PM CST, 2 hours 44 minutes earlier.
Area forecast discussion, Dec 20, 3:49 PM CST, 2 hours 44 minutes before
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</html>Hazardous weather outlook, Dec 20, 11:30 AM CST, 7 hours 3 minutes before
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK...UPDATED NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LITTLE ROCK AR 1130 AM CST FRI DEC 20 2013 ARZ003>007-012>016-021>025-030>034-037>047-052>057-062>069-211100- ARKANSAS-BAXTER-BOONE-BRADLEY-CALHOUN-CLARK-CLEBURNE-CLEVELAND- CONWAY-DALLAS-DESHA-DREW-FAULKNER-FULTON-GARLAND-GRANT-HOT SPRING- INDEPENDENCE-IZARD-JACKSON-JEFFERSON-JOHNSON-LINCOLN-LOGAN-LONOKE- MARION-MONROE-MONTGOMERY-NEWTON-OUACHITA-PERRY-PIKE-POLK-POPE- PRAIRIE-PULASKI-SALINE-SCOTT-SEARCY-SHARP-STONE-VAN BUREN-WHITE- WOODRUFF-YELL- 1130 AM CST FRI DEC 20 2013 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR A LARGE PART OF ARKANSAS. .DAY ONE...THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT A COLD FRONT WILL CONTINUE TO MOVE INTO THE STATE...BECOMING NEARLY STATIONARY OVER WEST CENTRAL TO NORTHEAST ARKANSAS BY MORNING. WITH AMPLE MOISTURE IN PLACE SCATTERED SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE POSSIBLE THROUGH THIS AFTERNOON. BY TONIGHT...A STRONGER UPPER WEATHER SYSTEM WILL MOVE OVER ARKANSAS ALONG THE STALLED FRONT AND DEVELOP MORE WIDESPREAD SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS. HEAVY RAIN IS EXPECTED TONIGHT AND A FLASH FLOOD WATCH IS IN EFFECT STARTING AT MIDNIGHT FOR THE NORTHWEST TWO THIRDS OF THE AREA. RAINFALL AMOUNTS FROM TONIGHT INTO SATURDAY MORNING WILL BE RANGE FROM A HALF INCH TO WELL OVER ONE INCH. SOME SPOTS COULD SEE UPWARDS OF 2 INCHES BY AROUND SUNRISE ON SATURDAY. ISOLATED STRONG TO SEVERE STORMS MAY DEVELOP LATER THIS EVENING INTO TONIGHT. THE MAIN THREAT WILL BE STRONG DAMAGING WINDS...WHILE AN ISOLATED TORNADO THREAT CAN NOT BE RULED OUT. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SATURDAY THROUGH THURSDAY THE STALLED FRONTAL BOUNDARY WILL BE OVER ARKANSAS ON SATURDAY AND AS A STRONG UPPER LEVEL STORM SYSTEM MOVES ALONG IT...NUMEROUS SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL DEVELOP...RESULTING IN AREAS OF HEAVY RAINFALL. RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF 2 TO 4 INCHES WILL BE POSSIBLE BEFORE THE STORM SYSTEM EXITS THE REGION LATE SATURDAY NIGHT INTO SUNDAY MORNING. THE BEST CHANCES FOR THE HEAVIEST RAIN WILL BE ACROSS THE NORTHWEST TWO THIRDS OF THE STATE...OR ALONG AND IN VICINITY OF A LINE FROM MENA...TO HOT SPRINGS...TO CONWAY...TO BATESVILLE. SOME LOCALLY HIGHER AMOUNTS AROUND 5 INCHES COULD BE SEEN IN THIS REGION. AS A RESULT...THE FLASH FLOOD WATCH WILL CONTINUE FOR THE NORTHWEST TWO THIRDS OF THE AREA THROUGH SATURDAY EVENING. LESSER RAINFALL AMOUNTS ARE EXPECTED ACROSS SOUTHEAST SECTIONS OF THE AREA...BUT 1 TO AS MUCH AS 3 INCHES COULD STILL BE SEEN. SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE POSSIBLE SATURDAY AFTERNOON AND INTO THE EVENING HOURS. THE BEST CHANCES OF SEEING SEVERE WEATHER WILL BE ALONG AND SOUTH OF A TEXARKANA TO SHERIDAN TO NEWPORT LINE WHERE A MODERATE RISK OF SEVERE WEATHER LIES. A SLIGHT RISK OF SEVERE WEATHER EXTENDS ROUGHLY SOUTH OF A FORT SMITH TO ASH FLAT LINE. THE PRIMARY THREAT WILL BE DAMAGING STRAIGHT LINE WINDS...BUT THERE WILL ALSO BE A THREAT FOR TORNADOES. THIS SYSTEM WILL EXIT THE REGION LATE SATURDAY NIGHT INTO SUNDAY...WITH MOST PRECIPITATION ENDING BY SUNDAY MORNING. AT THIS TIME...IT APPEARS SUBFREEZING TEMPERATURES WILL REMAIN TO THE NORTH OF THE FORECAST AREA AND LITTLE IF ANY WINTER PRECIPITATION IS EXPECTED. IF ANY WINTRY PRECIPITATION WERE TO OCCUR...THIS WILL BE PRIMARILY OVER NORTHERN ARKANSAS ON SUNDAY. LITTLE OR NO ACCUMULATIONS ARE EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION MAY BE NEEDED THIS EVENING...AND AGAIN ON SATURDAY. && VISIT NWS LITTLE ROCK ON THE WEB. GO TO HTTP://WEATHER.GOV AND CLICK ON CENTRAL ARKANSAS. 62/56
In the hours before
Special weather statement, Dec 20, 5:31 PM CST, 1 hour 2 minutes before
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</html>The air that afternoon
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.
Little Rock, AR (KBYH), 12:00Z
11.4 hours after it, 208 km from the path. December 21, 2013.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 158 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -96 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 25 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 461 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 57 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 51 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 518 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 610 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 5.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.9 K/km
The surface observations
Little Rock/Adams (LIT), 33 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 UTC |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Little Rock radar (KLZK), 45 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:32 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.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2013 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of December 20, 2013
2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 20 | 4:41 PM CST | EF0 | Warren, MS | 0.2 | 50 | $5,000 | ||
| December 20 | 4:56 PM CST | EF0 | Hinds, MS | 0.1 | 30 |
What this means
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.
Sources
NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.