Tornadoes · United States · Arkansas · 2017

EF0 tornado, Ozmont Bluff to State School, Arkansas, April 30, 2017

From Ozmont Bluff to State School, this EF0 tornado ran 1.1 miles across Drew County on April 30, 2017, touching down at 5:50 AM CDT and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 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 mphthis tornado

    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 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
EF0
Date
April 30, 2017
Touchdown
5:50 AM CDT (10:50 UTC)
Lifted
5:52 AM CDT (10:52 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
1.1 miles (1.8 km)
Path width
75 yards (69 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000
County
Drew County
Touchdown point
33.544, -91.767
Lift-off point
33.559, -91.761
Record number
1704300450-01

The damage survey

22 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LZK, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.

  • Outbuilding destroyed and carried downstream.
  • Combination of winds and trees damaged the front of a house
  • Porch appeared to cause parts of the roof to lift off. End Point
  • Tree uprooted onto a truck.

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

Severe thunderstorms and very heavy rainfall was noted on April 29-30, 2017. Major flooding was a result of the heavy rain.

Several trees were snapped or uprooted. A few mobile homes sustained heavy roof damage. One outbuilding had a tree fall through it.

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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 03:23 UTC and running to 11:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
21:30 UTC22:02 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLZK
22:08 UTC22:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLZK
03:00 UTC17:36 UTCFlash Flood WatchLZK
03:23 UTC11:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchLZK
10:56 UTC15:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningLZK

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 05:41 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.

Jackson, MS (KJAN), 00:00Z

10.8 hours before the tornado, 208 km from the path. April 30, 2017.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jackson, MS at 00:00Z on 2017-04-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1340 joules per kilogram, CIN -32, lifted condensation level 1169 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, Jackson, MS at 00:00Z on 2017-04-30The 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 170 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 24 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
1340 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-32 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2777 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1169 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
170 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
258 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.0
Supercell composite
10.9
0-3 km lapse rate
6.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Jackson, MS (KJAN), 12:00Z

1.2 hours after it, 208 km from the path. April 30, 2017.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jackson, MS at 12:00Z on 2017-04-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 647 joules per kilogram, CIN -84, lifted condensation level 920 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, Jackson, MS at 12:00Z on 2017-04-30The 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 221 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 32 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
647 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-84 J/kg
Surface CAPE
791 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
920 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
221 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
398 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.7
Supercell composite
3.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Little Rock radar (KLZK), 150 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 10:52 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
10:45 UTCTORNADO4 N Pleasant GroveDrew, AREF0 DAMAGE OCCURED IN DREW COUNTY.
10:50 UTCTORNADO4 N Pleasant GroveDrew, AREF0 DAMAGE OCCURED IN DREW COUNTY.
11:30 UTCFLASH FLOODMonticelloDrew, ARSOME MINOR STREET FLOODING WAS OCCURRING.
12:00 UTCHEAVY RAIN 3.12 Se CrossettAshley, AR24 HOUR RAINFALL AS OF 7 AM AT CRSA4, CROSSETT 2SSE COOP.
12:00 UTCHEAVY RAIN 3.461 S CrossettAshley, AR24 HOUR RAINFALL AT COCORAHS STATION AR-AS-9.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2017 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 30, 2017

42 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 301:25 AM CDTEF1Clay, AR2.8100$100,000
April 301:56 AM CDTEF1Dunklin, AR to MO2.050$20,000
April 302:07 AM CDTEF1Mississippi, AR5.6150$300,000
April 302:08 AM CDTEF1Dunklin, MO1.2100$250,000
April 302:15 AM CDTEF1Lonoke, AR5.1400$10,000
April 302:52 AM CDTEF2New Madrid, MO4.0150$60,000
April 303:07 AM CDTEF1Winn Parish, LA6.91,760$50,000
April 304:20 AM CDTEF1Avoyelles Parish, LA0.695$110,000
April 304:44 AM CDTEF1Morehouse Parish, LA5.750$100,000
April 306:14 AM CDTEF2Adams, MS3.4440$400,000
April 307:13 AM CDTEF1Warren, LA to MS9.2440$100,000
April 307:24 AM CDTEF1Jefferson, MS14.4440$300,000
April 307:30 AM CDTEF2Claiborne, MS19.9880$530,000
April 308:01 AM CDTEF0Copiah, MS5.2100$50,000
April 308:10 AM CDTEF1Hinds, MS6.1300$115,000
April 308:14 AM CDTEF1Warren, MS2.7900$50,000
April 308:22 AM CDTEF1Hinds, MS20.3880$300,000
April 308:23 AM CDTEF1Hinds, MS7.11,800$95,000
April 308:23 AM CDTEF1Hinds, MS1.1150$70,000
April 308:28 AM CDTEF1Hinds, MS2.0500$150,000
April 308:46 AM CDTEF0Tipton, TN2.1100$100,000
April 308:50 AM CDTEF1Madison, MS6.0400$40,000
April 308:51 AM CDTEF1Yazoo, MS5.01,500$20,000
April 308:54 AM CDTEF2Yazoo, MS21.71,700$2.3 million
April 309:06 AM CDTEF1Yazoo, MS6.91,003$130,000
April 309:16 AM CDTEF2Yazoo, MS23.41,9001$3.8 million
April 309:38 AM CDTEF1Holmes, MS9.1400$40,000
April 309:41 AM CDTEF0Scott, MS4.3100$50,000
April 309:42 AM CDTEF1Attala, MS3.9600$60,000
April 309:42 AM CDTEF1Holmes, MS3.0600$30,000
April 309:51 AM CDTEF0Carroll, MS2.6250$40,000
April 309:58 AM CDTEF2Carroll, MS15.51,936$2.1 million
April 3010:11 AM CDTEF1Montgomery, MS6.6970$4.0 million
April 3010:13 AM CDTEF1Montgomery, MS5.6800$40,000
April 3010:14 AM CDTEF1Montgomery, MS6.8650$75,000
April 3010:17 AM CDTEF0Neshoba, MS0.350$20,000
April 3010:18 AM CDTEF1Webster, MS7.4600$30,000
April 3010:26 AM CDTEF1Calhoun, MS2.750$200,000
April 3011:37 AM CDTEF1Lowndes, MS3.8440$375,000
April 301:15 PM CDTEF1Pointe Coupee Parish, LA0.950
April 301:50 PM CDTEF0East Baton Rouge Parish, LA0.340
April 302:12 PM CDTEF0Cullman, AL10.1215

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.