Tornadoes · United States · Arkansas · 2017

EF1 tornado, Jonesboro, Arkansas, July 3, 2017

This EF1 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Craighead County on July 3, 2017, touching down at 6:28 AM CDT and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $750,000 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
July 3, 2017
Touchdown
6:28 AM CDT (11:28 UTC)
Lifted
6:29 AM CDT (11:29 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.1 km)
Path width
75 yards (69 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$750,000
County
Craighead County
Touchdown point
35.833, -90.701
Lift-off point
35.834, -90.700
Record number
1707030528-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A passing upper level disturbance generated thunderstorms with one lone severe storm that produced both wind damage and a weak tornado across portions of northeast Arkansas during the early morning hours of July 3rd.

A brief EF1 tornado with maximum speeds of 100 to 105 mph touched down approximately one half mile south southeast of downtown Jonesboro with a highly localized area of damage between Citizens Street and the intersection of Rains street and East Oak Avenue. An apartment complex sustained roof damage and several windows were blown out. In addition, fence and siding debris were lofted and scattered about the area.

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
08:30 UTC15:31 UTCFlash Flood WatchMEG

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 05:44 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.

Little Rock, AR (KBYH), 00:00Z

11.5 hours before the tornado, 131 km from the path. July 3, 2017.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 2017-07-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1278 joules per kilogram, CIN -18, lifted condensation level 1173 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, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 2017-07-03The 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 5 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 13 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
1278 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-18 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3705 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1173 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
1 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
5 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
70 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Little Rock, AR (KBYH), 12:00Z

0.5 hours after it, 131 km from the path. July 3, 2017.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 2017-07-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 30 joules per kilogram, CIN -117, lifted condensation level 694 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, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 2017-07-03The 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 -6 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 36 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
30 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-117 J/kg
Surface CAPE
181 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
694 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
36 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-6 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
33 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Memphis radar (KNQA), 92 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 11:28 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
11:28 UTCTSTM WND DMGJonesboroCraighead, ARROOF DAMAGE AND TREES DOWN IN ROADWAY NEAR EAST OAK AVE. AND RAINS ST IN JONESBORO. TIME IS RADAR ESTIMATED.
11:28 UTCTSTM WND DMGJonesboroCraighead, ARROOF DAMAGE AND WINDOWS BLOWN OUT AT AN APARTMENT COMPLEX NEAR EAST OAK AVE. AND RAINS ST IN JONESBORO. TREES BLOCING RAODWAY ON CITIZEN STREET AND OAK STREET. TIME IS RADAR ESTIMATED.
11:28 UTCTSTM WND DMGJonesboroCraighead, ARROOF DAMAGE AND WINDOWS BLOWN OUT AT AN APARTMENT COMPLEX NEAR EAST OAK AVE. AND RAINS ST IN JONESBORO. TREES BLOCKING ROADWAY ON CITIZEN STREET AND OAK STREET. TIME IS RADAR ESTIMATED. POSSIBLE TORNADO DAMAGE.
11:28 UTCTORNADO1 Nw JonesboroCraighead, ARA BRIEF TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN APPROXIMATELY ONE HALF MILE SSE OF DOWNTOWN JONESBORO EARLY MONDAY MORNING. EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PHOTOS SUPPORT A HIGHLY LOCALIZED AREA OF DAMAGE BETWEEN CITIZEN STREET AND THE INTERSECTION O
11:30 UTCTSTM WND DMGBonoCraighead, ARTREES DOWN BLOCKING HIGHWAY 91 NEAR WESTSIDE SCHOOL. TIME IS RADAR ESTIMATED.

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 July 3, 2017

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 33:30 PM MDTEF0Curry, NM0.830
July 35:20 PM CDTEF0Dyer, TN0.375

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.