EF1 tornado, Hudspeth to Halley Jct, Arkansas, March 30, 2016

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

March 30, 2016

Touchdown

11:15 PM CDT (04:15 UTC)

Lifted

11:19 PM CDT (04:19 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

3.6 miles (5.8 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

Property damage

$110,000

County

Chicot County

Touchdown point

33.518, -91.450

Lift-off point

33.535, -91.391

Record number

1603302215-01

32 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS JAN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.

• small billboard pushed over
• loss of most of the roof, carport blown away
• pontoon boat blown several yards
• construction barrels blown away

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

Widespread severe weather and some flash flooding occurred over the ArkLaMiss region from the evening of March 30th through the evening of March 31st. On March 30th an upper level storm system moved into the region from the Southern Plains. It was accompanied by a slow moving cold front extending from a large surface low across the Central Plains into the middle Mississippi Valley.||A warm moisture rich air mass from the Gulf of Mexico moved into the region as a warm front lifted northward on the 30th. A series of potent upper level disturbances crossed the region through the 31st, bringing a rapid increase in wind aloft and resulting in an unstable environment that contained high levels of wind shear. These factors set the stage for flash flooding and several rounds of severe weather. Widespread severe weather occurred with a mix of damaging winds, up to golf ball sized hail, and tornadoes. Two EF-1 Tornadoes occurred in Chicot County, one of which resulted in an injury. Parts of the Delta region experienced flash flooding once again, in areas that had been saturated for much of the month. This aggravated ongoing river flooding as well. ||The cold front moved across the region on the night of the 31st, thus ending the severe weather from the northwest.

This tornado began just east of US Highway 165 and north of Gibson Rd where a 120 ft tall radio antenna was blown over. The tornado continued north paralleling Highway 165. The tornado reached its strongest point just south of Bullock Rd, where a diesel tank was moved several yards through a sod farm and an irrigation pivot was overturned. The tornado lifted about a half mile north of Bullock Rd damaging a few power poles and snapping a tree along a driveway. The maximum estimated winds were 100 mph.

The entire path of this tornado was within a mile of the path of the tornado which occurred on the evening of March 13th. The tornado began on the west side of Dermott just south of W Gaines St, where much of the roof was removed from a home and the carport was blown away. An outbuilding was damaged at this location as well and a pontoon boat was blown several yards. The tornado continued through the center of Dermott intermittently snapping and uprooting trees and breaking a couple utility poles along the path. Minor roof damage occurred at a senior care facility, an abandoned trailer was damaged, and a fence was blown down. On the east side of down, a light pole was blown over at a baseball field and a small billboard was blown over. As the tornado crossed the intersection of AR Highway 35 and US Highway 165, several construction cones were blown away. The tornado reached its strongest point in a field north of Highway 35, where a farm equipment shed was demolished. Heavy foundation blocks and farm trailers were moved. Debris was scattered at least a half mile to the north through fields and across US Highway 165. The tornado lifted shortly thereafter. The maximum estimated winds were 110mph.

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

7 minutes of warning. NWS JAN issued a tornado warning for this county at 04:08 UTC, 7 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:41 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 03:00 UTC and running to 08:27 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:15 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.

Monticello (LLQ), 33 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), 165 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:13 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 2016 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are

6 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.