EF4 Mayflower–Vilonia tornado, Arkansas, April 27, 2014

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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF4

Date

April 27, 2014

Touchdown

7:06 PM CDT (00:06 UTC)

Lifted

8:02 PM CDT (01:02 UTC)

On the ground

56 minutes

Path length

41.1 miles (66.1 km)

Path width

1,320 yards (1207 m)

Deaths

16

Injuries

193

Property damage

$223 million

Counties

Pulaski, Faulkner and White counties

Touchdown point

34.779, -92.652

Lift-off point

35.142, -92.079

Record number

1404271806-01

100 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LZK, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF4. The highest wind the damage implies is 190 mph.

• All walls had collapsed with debris left on the foundation. The only thing left standing was the built-in storm shelter.
• Concrete barriers were blown over and moved.
• This was the tornado path center.
• This was the western edge of the tornado track.

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

A round of showers and thunderstorms occurred during the morning of the 27th. Some of the storms produced hail in central Arkansas. New storms during the afternoon dropped hail in the northern and western parts of the state. The cool outflow from the morning storms left a boundary draped across the middle of the state. This boundary separated cool air to the north and much warmer air to the south. During the evening, as a strong area of low pressure approached, a supercell erupted rapidly along the boundary. Altogether, the supercell produced five separate tornadoes, the first of which was rated EF4 and killed 16 people. It was the deadliest single tornado in Arkansas since 1968. Nearly 200 people were treated at hospitals.||Large amounts of rain fell over the northeastern quarter of the state. For the 24-hour period ending at 7 AM on the 28th, some of the larger totals included 7.60 inches at Batesville Lock and Dam (Independence Co.), 6.10 inches at Calamine (Sharp Co.), 5.34 inches at Evening Shade (Sharp Co.), 5.05 inches at Melbourne (Izard Co.), 4.46 inches at Hardy (Sharp Co.), 4.18 inches at Blanchard Springs (Stone Co.), 3.96 inches at Armstead Mountain (Pope Co.), 3.95 inches at Saddle (Fulton Co.), 3.92 inches at Poughkeepsie (Sharp Co.), 3.91 inches at Greers Ferry Dam (Cleburne Co.), and 3.72 inches at Mountain View (Stone Co.).||President Barack Obama declared a disaster in the following counties: Faulkner, Pulaski, White, Cleburne, Independence, Jackson, Izard, Sharp, and Fulton.

A tornado began west of the Ferndale area, near the Saline/Pulaski County line. This was the first of five tornadoes produced by the same supercell thunderstorm. According to the American Red Cross, 7 houses were destroyed, 24 had major damage, 9 houses and 1 mobile home had minor damage, and 76 houses were affected in Pulaski County. Three members of one family, a 48-year-old male, a 20-year-old female, and a 14-year-old female, were killed in a house on Deer Dr. Communities affected included Ferndale and Roland. The tornado crossed the eastern portion of Lake Maumelle. The tornado exited Pulaski County 1.6 miles northeast of Roland, as it crossed the Arkansas River, and entered Faulkner County 0.6 mile southwest of Palarm.

This tornado exited Pulaski County 1.6 miles northeast of Roland, while crossing the Arkansas River, and entered Faulkner County 0.6 mile southwest of Palarm. The tornado reached its maximum intensity of EF4 in Faulkner County. It tracked through the River Plantation subdivision and White City, then struck Mayflower, where residences and businesses were destroyed. The tornado then moved across Interstate 40 at Mayflower, throwing cars, trucks, and road construction equipment off the freeway. Traffic along the interstate was backed up for weeks following the tornado as motorists slowed to view the damage. Next, the tornado crossed a part of Lake Conway and moved across part of Camp Robinson, a National Guard facility, where the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission lost a clubhouse, shop, horse barn, residence, metal carports, shower house, and dog kennels. The tornado then continued on through Saltillo and then caused devastation to homes and businesses in Vilonia. About 400 people had taken shelter in a safe room at the Vilonia high school. ||According to the American Red Cross, in Faulkner County, the tornado destroyed 261 houses and 121 mobile homes; caused major damage to 77 houses, 29 mobile homes, and 5 apartments; caused minor damage to 96 houses, 14 mobile homes, and 4 apartments; and affected 257 houses, 32 mobile homes, and 4 apartments. Hundreds of cars and pickup trucks were mangled along the path of the tornado. ||In Mayflower, a home improvement store was badly damaged, and a vehicle repair shop, millwork company, construction company, electric substation, and church were destroyed. A recreational vehicle dealership and dozens of RVs were also destroyed. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission eventually removed 627 tons of tornado debris from Lake Conway. In Vilonia, the new intermediate school under construction was destroyed, as were nearly two dozen businesses along Main St. (U.S. 64B), including a dollar store, a strip mall, two auto repair shops, the old city hall, a gas station, a real estate office, an investment firm, an auto parts store, and a fried chicken restaurant. ||There were 12 fatalities in Faulkner County. In the Mayflower area, a 72-year-old woman was killed in a house on Plantation Dr., a 51-year-old man was killed in a house on Fortner Dr., and an 82-year-old man was killed in a house on Dam Rd. The other 9 fatalities were all in the Vilonia area. These included: brothers 7- and 9-years-old in a house on Cody Ln., a 50-year-old woman in a vehicle on U.S. 64, a 52-year-old man and a 53-year-old woman in a house on Cemetery Rd., a 57-year-old man in a house on North St., a 31-year-old man in a house on Aspen Creek Dr., and a 22-year-old man in a house on Clover Ridge Dr. In addition, a woman who was injured in a mobile home on Ponderosa Dr. gave birth to a baby which died immediately. More than 150 people were treated at hospitals. ||The tornado hit Vilonia three years and two days after a tornado had destroyed some of the same structures. The tornado exited Faulkner County 4.6 miles southeast of Naylor and entered White County 2.2 miles west-northwest of El Paso.

The deaths

15 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

0 minutes of warning. NWS LZK issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:06 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:36 UTC and running to 03:33 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 High Risk, with a 0.30 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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), 17 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:06 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 2014 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are

16 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.