EF1 tornado, Trull to (Eld)El Dorado Goodw, Arkansas, January 21, 2017

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

January 21, 2017

Touchdown

7:04 PM CST (01:04 UTC)

Lifted

7:09 PM CST (01:09 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

2.9 miles (4.7 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$10,000

County

Union County

Touchdown point

33.173, -92.807

Lift-off point

33.211, -92.786

Record number

1701211904-01

6 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS SHV, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 93 mph.

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

A strong upper level low pressure system emerged out across the Southern Plains during the morning and afternoon hours of January 21st. Ahead of this system, unseasonably warm, humid, and unstable air spread northward across much of the Ark-La-Tex from the Gulf of Mexico in advance of this system and associated Pacific cold front. A surface low pressure system also developed along the advancing cold front, with low level winds backing more southeast ahead of the upper level low. Coupled with strong wind shear and instability, scattered severe supercell thunderstorms rapidly developed during the mid and late afternoon hours across portions of extreme Eastern Texas, Southern Arkansas, and Northern Louisiana. The considerable wind shear contributed to rotating updrafts, such that twelve tornadoes touched down across the aforementioned areas. Instances of large hail was also reported with these supercells, given the very cold temperatures aloft. These severe thunderstorms exited the region during the mid evening hours into the Ark-La-Miss region where additional tornadoes and instances of severe thunderstorm damage was reported.

An EF-1 tornado with maximum estimated winds near 90 mph touched down along Shuler Road between Dry Creek Lane and Wolfie Road where several small pine trees were snapped. The tornado continued north northeast across a heavily wooded area before snapping large branches along Parnell Road, and later intensified as it reached Highway 82 and Guinn Road. Here, several large pine trees were uprooted and a tree fell against a portion of a home, damaging a small antenna tower. The tornado lifted shortly thereafter on Guinn Road.

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

32 minutes of warning. NWS SHV issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:32 UTC, 32 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:41 UTC and running to 04:16 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 00:55 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.

El Dorado/Goodwin (ELD), 4 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 128 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:02 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 2017 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are

59 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.