Tornadoes · United States · Arkansas · 2015

EF1 tornado, Highfill to Bella Vista, Arkansas, May 28, 2015

From Highfill to Bella Vista, this EF1 tornado ran 1.6 miles across Benton County on May 28, 2015, touching down at 2:09 PM CDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $25,000 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.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF1
Date
May 28, 2015
Touchdown
2:09 PM CDT (19:09 UTC)
Lifted
2:12 PM CDT (19:12 UTC)
On the ground
3 minutes
Path length
1.6 miles (2.6 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$25,000
County
Benton County
Touchdown point
36.257, -94.358
Lift-off point
36.280, -94.349
Record number
1505281309-01

The damage survey

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

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

Widespread thunderstorms moved across northwestern Arkansas during the afternoon hours of the 28th. Two tornadoes resulted from the storms as they passed through the region.

This tornado damaged barns and uprooted trees. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in the tornado was 90 to 100 mph.

A tornado damaged barns and snapped large tree limbs. It was witnessed by several people in the area. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in the tornado was 70 to 80 mph.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
02:20 UTC02:30 UTCFlood WarningTSA

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:33 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 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.

Springfield, MO (KSGF), 12:00Z

7.2 hours before the tornado, 86 km from the path. May 28, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Springfield, MO at 12:00Z on 2015-05-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1203 joules per kilogram, CIN -27, lifted condensation level 811 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
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.
HodographHodograph, Springfield, MO at 12:00Z on 2015-05-28The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 64 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 19 knots.1939Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
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
1203 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-27 J/kg
Surface CAPE
268 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
811 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
64 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
76 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Springfield, MO (KSGF), 00:00Z

4.8 hours after it, 86 km from the path. May 29, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Springfield, MO at 00:00Z on 2015-05-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 384 joules per kilogram, CIN -15, lifted condensation level 704 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
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.
HodographHodograph, Springfield, MO at 00:00Z on 2015-05-29The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 75 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 19 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
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
384 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-15 J/kg
Surface CAPE
610 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
704 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
75 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
47 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Western Arkansas radar (KSRX), 109 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:09 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
19:09 UTCTORNADOHighfillBenton, ARA TORNADO UPROOTED TREES...DAMAGED BARNS AND OUTBUILDINGS...AND DAMAGED A CHICKEN HOUSE.
19:20 UTCTSTM WND DMGN HighfillBenton, ARLARGE TREES UPROOTED NORTH OF HIGHFILL. EMERGENCY MANAGER ALSO REPORTS OTHER DAMAGE IN THE COUNTY.
19:40 UTCTORNADO2 Nw BentonvilleBenton, ARA TORNADO DAMAGED BARNS AND BLEW DOWN TREES. IT WAS WITNESSED BY RESIDENTS OF THE AREA.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2015 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 28, 2015

13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 289:58 AM CDTEF1LeFlore, OK0.575$50,000
May 282:40 PM CDTEF0Benton, AR0.250$10,000
May 282:14 PM MDTEF0Greeley, KS0.520
May 283:37 PM CDTEF0Borden, TX1.150
May 282:38 PM MDTEF0Las Animas, CO0.350
May 283:53 PM CDTEF0Wichita, KS1.950
May 284:07 PM CDTEF0Wichita, KS0.325
May 283:35 PM MDTEF0Kit Carson, CO1.025
May 284:50 PM CDTEF0Scott, KS1.975
May 283:53 PM MDTEF0Baca, CO0.450
May 285:09 PM CDTEF0Finney, KS1.775
May 285:17 PM CDTEF0Walsh, ND2.0100
May 288:13 PM CDTEF0Foard, TX0.550

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.