EF1 tornado, Overcup to Cypress Valley, Arkansas, April 19, 2015

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

April 19, 2015

Touchdown

5:35 PM CDT (22:35 UTC)

Lifted

5:40 PM CDT (22:40 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

4.2 miles (6.8 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

County

Conway County

Touchdown point

35.224, -92.693

Lift-off point

35.234, -92.619

Record number

1504191635-01

30 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LZK, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.

• Loss of majority of shingles on south facing roof.
• Large pine tree snapped approximately 20 feet above the ground. Snapped portion of the tree was thrown approx. 50 feet onto the porch of the adjacent residence.
• one uprooted tree blown due south in addition to the trees blown to the NE

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

A storm system aloft moved toward the region from the west, allowing thunderstorms to develop across portions of the state. These storms produced large hail and some damaging winds. One tornado also developed, damaging some trees outbuildings and a chicken house near Overcup (Conway County).||Baseball size hail (and slightly larger) was reported near Glenwood (Pike County), between Havana and Waveland (both in Yell County) and at Hot Springs (Garland County). At the latter location, windows were busted out of cars. Hen egg size hail pelted areas around Caddo Gap (Montgomery County), Pettyview (Garland County) and Sulphur Springs (Jefferson County). Golf ball sized hail fell at Ferndale (Pulaski County), Mount Magazine (Logan County), Pine Bluff (Jefferson County) and Rose Bud (White County).||Some storms picked up speed, bowed out (backward C-shaped), and produced wind damage (70+ mph gusts). This happened at Pangburn (White County) and Quitman (Cleburne County), with numerous trees downed.

The tornado touched down on the east side of Arkansas State Hwy 9 at Overcup (Conway County). Damage mainly consisted of snapped and blown down trees. There was also minor damage to outbuildings and chicken houses.

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

3 minutes of warning. NWS LZK issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:32 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:00 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 18:46 UTC and running to 22:46 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:01 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.

Russellville Municipal Airport (RUE), 40 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Little Rock radar (KLZK), 57 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:35 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 2015 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are

21 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.