Tornadoes · United States · Arkansas · 2013

EF2 tornado, Huddleston to Oden, Arkansas, May 30, 2013

Name: EF2 tornado, Huddleston to Oden, Arkansas, May 30, 2013
Start: 2013-05-30T20:00:00.000Z
End: 2013-05-30T20:07:00.000Z
Location: Huddleston to Oden, Arkansas

From Huddleston to Oden, this EF2 tornado ran 3.4 miles across Montgomery County on May 30, 2013, touching down at 3:00 PM CDT and reaching 400 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 2, and did $250,000 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 mph
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 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.
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: EF2
Date: May 30, 2013
Touchdown: 3:00 PM CDT (20:00 UTC)
Lifted: 3:07 PM CDT (20:07 UTC)
On the ground: 7 minutes
Path length: 3.4 miles (5.4 km)
Path width: 400 yards (366 m)
Deaths: 0
Injuries: 2
Property damage: $250,000
County: Montgomery County
Touchdown point: 34.602, -93.829
Lift-off point: 34.627, -93.779
Record number: 1305301400-01

The damage survey

15 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LZK, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 120 mph.

TV antenna bent over, trees down. Awning blown onto a pickup truck.
Few sheets of tin off chicken house.
Pavement displaced by previous flash flood.

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

What the Weather Service recorded

The approach of low pressure aloft triggered numerous thunderstorms from the 30th into the early morning hours of the 31st. Tornadoes, severe thunderstorms, and flash flooding occurred. The flooding killed six people, and the tornadoes killed one. The same weather system caused severe storms and flash flooding again on June 1st. For the 24-hour period ending at 7 AM on the 31st, a band of very heavy rain fell from Waldron and Mena to Conway and Little Rock and then on to Newport and Augusta. Within this band, rainfall amounts of 3 to 5 inches were common, and isolated totals exceeded 7 inches. Also on the evening of the 30th, 3.09 inches of rain fell in one hour at Little Rock, breaking the all-time record for the greatest amount of rain in one hour in the city. The previous record was 3.00 inches on May 26, 1955. President Barack Obama declared federal disasters in these counties: Cleburne, Independence, Montgomery, Polk, Scott, Searcy, Stone, Van Buren, and Woodruff.

An EF2 tornado blew the roof off one house and damaged another. A number of outbuildings were damaged or destroyed. Numerous trees were uprooted or snapped off. Two people were injured.

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

The forecast that day

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 19:50 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.

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 May 30, 2:03 PM CDT, 57 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, May 30, 2:03 PM CDT, 57 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LITTLE ROCK AR
203 PM CDT THU MAY 30 2013

.SHORT TERM...TONIGHT THROUGH SUNDAY NIGHT
SHOWERS/STORMS WILL BE LIKELY THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT...WITH
ABUNDANT LOW LEVEL MOISTURE...HIGH SHEAR...AND INSTABILITY
PRESENT. SOME SEVERE STORMS ARE POSSIBLE...AND A TORNADO WATCH HAS
BEEN ISSUED THROUGH 02Z. SOME STRONGER STORMS COULD PRODUCE BRIEF
HEAVY RAINFALL AS WELL...GIVEN THE SLOW MEAN STORM MOTION VECTOR...AND
INCREASING PRECIPITABLE WATER.

ACTIVITY WILL GRADUALLY TRANSLATE NORTHEASTWARD THROUGH THE
OVERNIGHT HOURS...DIMINISHING A BIT AFTER SUNSET. HOWEVER...
ADDITIONAL SHOWERS/STORMS ARE POSSIBLE AS ANOTHER WAVE MOVES
THROUGH...AND THE LOW LEVEL JET KICKS IN. THESE WILL MOST LIKELY
AFFECT NORTHERN ARKANSAS.

THERE WILL LIKELY BE A BRIEF BREAK DURING THE DAY FRIDAY. HOWEVER...
COLD FRONT WILL START TO MAKE ITS WAY INTO THE REGION LATE FRIDAY
AFTERNOON AND EARLY FRIDAY EVENING. SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS ARE
EXPECTED TO DEVELOP AND OVERSPREAD THE AREA...PARTICULARLY IN THE
NORTHWEST. DUE TO ALREADY WET GROUND...THE ADDITIONAL RAINFALL
EXPECTED COULD CAUSE FLASH FLOODING. AMOUNTS OF TWO TO FOUR INCHES
ARE POSSIBLE...WITH HIGHER TOTALS OF FIVE INCHES OR MORE NOT OUT
OF THE QUESTION. FOR THIS REASON...HAVE ISSUED A FLASH FLOOD WATCH
FOR NORTHWEST/NORTH CENTRAL ARKANSAS BEGINNING FRIDAY EVENING
THROUGH MID DAY SATURDAY. IF MODEL TRENDS ARE ANY INDICATION...
THIS MAY NEED TO BE ADJUSTED SOUTHWARD A BIT IN THE NEXT 12-24
HOURS.

THE FRONT WILL MOVE INTO CENTRAL/SOUTHERN ARKANSAS MID DAY INTO
LATE SATURDAY...WITH SHOWERS/STORMS CONTINUING. WHILE LOCALIZED
HEAVY RAINFALL IS A POSSIBILITY THEN...IT/S NOT EXPECTED TO BE AS
WIDESPREAD.

FRONT SHOULD CLEAR OUT BY LATE SATURDAY...WITH COOLER WEATHER IN
THE OFFING.
&&

.LONG TERM...MONDAY THROUGH THURSDAY
NO MAJOR CHANGES WERE MADE TO THE EXTENDED FORECAST.
&&

.PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS...
BATESVILLE AR     70  81  71  81 /  60  30  50  70
CAMDEN AR         70  85  71  88 /  50  10  20  60
HARRISON AR       67  82  68  78 /  60  30  80  80
HOT SPRINGS AR    71  85  73  83 /  50  10  20  70
LITTLE ROCK   AR  71  86  72  84 /  40  20  20  70
MONTICELLO AR     72  90  73  89 /  30  10  20  60
MOUNT IDA AR      72  84  74  83 /  50  10  30  70
MOUNTAIN HOME AR  68  82  68  81 /  60  30  80  80
NEWPORT AR        71  83  71  81 /  60  30  30  70
PINE BLUFF AR     71  85  72  85 /  30  10  20  70
RUSSELLVILLE AR   70  83  71  81 /  50  20  50  80
SEARCY AR         70  83  70  82 /  50  20  30  70
STUTTGART AR      71  85  72  86 /  40  20  20  70
&&

.LZK WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
FLASH FLOOD WATCH FROM FRIDAY EVENING THROUGH SATURDAY AFTERNOON
FOR BAXTER-BOONE-MARION-NEWTON-SEARCY.
&&

SHORT TERM...57 / LONG TERM...62

Hazardous weather outlook, May 30, 1:25 PM CDT, 1 hour 35 minutes before

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LITTLE ROCK AR
125 PM CDT THU MAY 30 2013

ARZ003>007-012>016-021>025-030>034-037>047-052>057-062>069-311000-
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-
125 PM CDT THU MAY 30 2013

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR A LARGE PART OF ARKANSAS.

.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT

STRONG TO SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED TO AFFECT THE NORTHWEST
HALF OF THE STATE THROUGH THE EVENING HOURS.  DAMAGING WIND GUSTS
ARE THE PRIMARY THREAT...ALONG WITH HEAVY RAINFALL.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...FRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY

YET ANOTHER DISTURBANCE IS EXPECTED TO MOVE THROUGH THE REGION ON
FRIDAY AS AN UPPER LEVEL TROUGH OF LOW PRESSURE MOVES THROUGH THE
NATIONS MID SECTION. ADDITIONAL SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE
POSSIBLE DURING THE DAY AND SOME OF THE STORMS COULD BE STRONG TO
POSSIBLY SEVERE...ESPECIALLY IN THE AFTERNOON HOURS. THE MAIN SEVERE
WEATHER THREATS WILL BE LARGE HAIL AND STRONG WINDS BUT THE TORNADO
THREAT CAN NOT BE DISCOUNTED ENTIRELY.

IN ADDITION TO THE POSSIBILITY OF STRONG STORMS...THE MOISTURE LADEN
AIR MASS COULD ALSO LEAD TO LOCALLY HEAVY RAIN. ROUGHLY THE NORTHERN
HALF OF THE STATE IS UNDER A SLIGHT RISK OF SEVERE WEATHER FRIDAY.

THE AFOREMENTIONED UPPER TROUGH WILL MOVE OFF TO THE NORTHEAST ON
SATURDAY FINALLY ALLOWING A SLOW MOVING COLD FRONT TO ADVANCE INTO
THE STATE. SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED TO DEVELOP ALONG
THE BOUNDARY AND SOME OF THE STORMS COULD BE STRONG TO POSSIBLY
SEVERE WITH DAMAGING WINDS AND HEAVY RAIN THE MAIN CONCERN. THE AREA
OF CONCERN WILL BE ALONG THE BOUNDARY ITSELF AND WILL COVER A MUCH
LARGER AREA THAN TODAY OR FRIDAY.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

SPOTTER ACTIVATION MAY BE NEEDED.

&&

VISIT NWS LITTLE ROCK ON THE WEB. GO TO HTTP://WEATHER.GOV AND
CLICK ON CENTRAL ARKANSAS.

56

In the hours before

Special weather statement, May 30, 11:59 AM CDT, 3 hours 1 minute before

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LITTLE ROCK AR
1159 AM CDT THU MAY 30 2013

ARZ030-037-301730-
LOGAN AR-SCOTT AR-
1159 AM CDT THU MAY 30 2013

...SIGNIFICANT WEATHER ADVISORY FOR WESTERN SCOTT AND WESTERN LOGAN
COUNTIES UNTIL 1230 PM CDT...

AT 1155 AM CDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR WAS TRACKING
STRONG THUNDERSTORMS ALONG A LINE EXTENDING FROM 2 MILES SOUTHEAST OF
MANSFIELD TO NEAR MORGAN SPRINGS TO 7 MILES SOUTHWEST OF MORGAN
SPRINGS...AND MOVING NORTHEAST AT 35 MPH.

HAIL UP TO ONE-HALF INCH IN DIAMETER AND WIND GUSTS UP TO 50 MPH ARE
EXPECTED WITH THESE STORMS...ALONG WITH HEAVY RAIN AND FREQUENT
DANGEROUS LIGHTNING.

* LOCATIONS IMPACTED INCLUDE...
  WALDRON...            BOONEVILLE...         RATCLIFF...
  OLIVER...             MORGAN SPRINGS...     MANSFIELD...
  LAKE HINKLE...        ECHO...               BEAUCHAMP...
  WINFIELD...           LUCAS...              IONE...
  HON...                ELM PARK...           CHISMVILLE...
  CAUTHRON...           CAULKSVILLE...        CAROLAN...

THESE STORMS MAY INTENSIFY...SO BE CERTAIN TO MONITOR LOCAL RADIO AND
TV STATIONS...AS WELL AS LOCAL CABLE TV OUTLETS...FOR ADDITIONAL
INFORMATION AND POSSIBLE WARNINGS FROM THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE.

TORRENTIAL RAIN...WHICH MAY FLOOD LOW LYING AREAS SUCH AS DITCHES AND
UNDERPASSES...IS ALSO LIKELY. DO NOT DRIVE YOUR VEHICLE ON A FLOODED
ROADWAY...TURN AROUND DONT DROWN!

LAT...LON 3493 9445 3496 9441 3497 9424 3505 9423
      3507 9425 3511 9415 3515 9414 3515 9404
      3523 9404 3524 9393 3533 9391 3532 9382
      3512 9381 3475 9424 3473 9446
TIME...MOT...LOC 1700Z 219DEG 32KT 3507 9418 3492 9432
          3485 9438

/62

Special weather statement, May 30, 2:21 PM CDT, 39 minutes before

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LITTLE ROCK AR
221 PM CDT THU MAY 30 2013

ARZ004-005-013-014-022-023-302005-
BAXTER AR-MARION AR-POPE AR-SEARCY AR-STONE AR-VAN BUREN AR-
221 PM CDT THU MAY 30 2013

...SIGNIFICANT WEATHER ADVISORY FOR NORTHWESTERN VAN BUREN...
NORTHWESTERN STONE...SEARCY...NORTHEASTERN POPE...SOUTHERN MARION AND
BAXTER COUNTIES UNTIL 300 PM CDT...

AT 218 PM CDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR WAS TRACKING
STRONG THUNDERSTORMS ALONG A LINE EXTENDING FROM 2 MILES SOUTHWEST OF
WESTERN GROVE TO NEAR EULA TO 5 MILES NORTH OF SOLO...AND MOVING
NORTHEAST AT 45 MPH.

HAIL UP TO THE SIZE OF PENNIES AND WIND GUSTS UP TO 40 MPH ARE
EXPECTED WITH THESE STORMS.

* LOCATIONS IMPACTED INCLUDE...
  YELLVILLE...          MOUNTAIN HOME...      MARSHALL...
  ZACK...               WOOLUM...             WITTS SPRING...
  WATTS...              THOLA...              SHIPP...
  SALESVILLE...         SAINT JOE...          RUSH...
  RODNEY...             ROBINSON PT LNDG...   PUSH MTN...
  POINT PETER...        NORFORK DAM...        NORFORK...

IF THREATENING WEATHER APPROACHES YOUR AREA...MOVE INDOORS UNTIL
THE STORMS PASS.

&&

LAT...LON 3634 9215 3618 9216 3618 9221 3614 9222
      3610 9218 3612 9215 3610 9213 3593 9217
      3557 9296 3589 9289 3597 9294 3611 9295
      3612 9289 3617 9288 3646 9223
TIME...MOT...LOC 1921Z 240DEG 42KT 3613 9288 3594 9278
          3571 9283

46

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.

Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 12:00Z

8.0 hours before the tornado, 237 km from the path. May 30, 2013.

Skew-T log-p

Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.

Hodograph

The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.

Mixed-layer CAPE: 2018 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -15 J/kg
Surface CAPE: 2009 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 497 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 26 kt
0-1 km bulk shear: 30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 188 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 227 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 1.2
Supercell composite: 5.9
0-3 km lapse rate: 5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 00:00Z

4.0 hours after it, 237 km from the path. May 31, 2013.

Skew-T log-p

Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.

Hodograph

Mixed-layer CAPE: 1600 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -19 J/kg
Surface CAPE: 2653 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1217 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear: 15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 69 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 151 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.8
Supercell composite: 7.1
0-3 km lapse rate: 6.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Mount Ida (MWT), 22 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 Western Arkansas radar (KSRX), 91 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:59 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 track Every 2013 tornado in Arkansas Every tornado in Arkansas since 1950 Warnings in force in Arkansas now The forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 30, 2013

28 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 30	2:08 PM CDT	EF1	Polk, AR	0.8	200			$35,000
May 30	3:03 PM CDT	EF1	Pike, AR	1.5	300			$10,000
May 30	3:08 PM CDT	EF0	Payne, OK	0.3	100
May 30	3:15 PM CDT	EF0	Payne, OK	0.7	100
May 30	3:16 PM CDT	EF2	Pike, AR	9.0	300		5	$145,000
May 30	3:26 PM CDT	EF0	Payne, OK	1.6	200
May 30	3:35 PM CDT	EF2	Polk, OK to AR	8.6	800		5	$295,000
May 30	3:35 PM CDT	EF1	Garland, AR to OK	8.7	300			$100,000
May 30	3:37 PM CDT	EF0	Payne, OK	0.4	50
May 30	3:49 PM CDT	EF1	Garland, AR	7.2	300			$500,000
May 30	4:01 PM CDT	EF0	Creek, OK	0.1	50
May 30	4:10 PM CDT	EF1	Muscatine, IA	2.4	100			$25,000
May 30	4:32 PM CDT	EF1	Polk, AR	2.4	200			$75,000
May 30	4:44 PM CDT	EF1	Rock Island, IL to IA	4.0	150			$140,000
May 30	5:35 PM CDT	EF0	Whiteside, IL	0.6	25
May 30	5:58 PM CDT	EF0	Garvin, OK	0.4	200
May 30	6:10 PM CDT	EF1	Montgomery, AR	3.2	200			$15,000
May 30	6:49 PM CDT	EF0	Mayes, OK	0.1	50
May 30	6:54 PM CDT	EF0	Mayes, OK	0.1	50
May 30	7:08 PM CDT	EF0	Mayes, OK	0.6	100
May 30	7:24 PM CDT	EF1	Mayes, OK	2.1	200
May 30	7:46 PM CDT	EF1	Saline, AR	1.7	250			$25,000
May 30	8:40 PM CDT	EF2	Tulsa, OK	5.6	450			$3.0 million
May 30	9:13 PM CDT	EF1	Pulaski, AR	0.2	150			$150,000
May 30	9:36 PM CDT	EF1	Grant, AR	0.4	200	1		$25,000
May 30	12:20 AM CDT	EF1	Howell, MO	4.3	400			$5,000
May 30	12:25 AM CDT	EF1	Monroe, AR	0.4	100			$25,000
May 30	12:50 AM CDT	EF1	Monroe, AR	3.3	200		1	$150,000

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.