Tornadoes · United States · Arkansas · 2017

EF0 tornado, Glen Rose, Arkansas, March 24, 2017

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Hot Spring County on March 24, 2017, touching down at 10:31 PM CDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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
March 24, 2017
Touchdown
10:31 PM CDT (03:31 UTC)
Lifted
10:32 PM CDT (03:32 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Hot Spring County
Touchdown point
34.502, -92.769
Lift-off point
34.504, -92.768
Record number
1703242131-01

The damage survey

42 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LZK, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 115 mph.

  • start point is the treeline in this picture
  • start point actually in woods back here
  • slid southward off foundation
  • carport lifted into tree. bike fell where a truck was located.

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

A line of strong to severe thunderstorms with a few tornadoes moved through the state on the evening of March 24th and early morning of the 25th.

The tornado started in Hot Spring County near the Saline county line. At the time it was in Hot Spring county, it was rated as a EF0 with just a few trees down.

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 02:15 UTC and running to 05:54 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
15:00 UTC03:00 UTCLake Wind AdvisoryLZK
02:15 UTC05:54 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchLZK
03:30 UTC03:43 UTCSevere Thunderstorm 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. 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 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.

Shreveport, LA (KBAD), 00:00Z

3.5 hours before the tornado, 243 km from the path. March 25, 2017.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA at 00:00Z on 2017-03-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 24 joules per kilogram, CIN -86, lifted condensation level 1519 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, Shreveport, LA at 00:00Z on 2017-03-25The 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 276 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 63 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
24 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-86 J/kg
Surface CAPE
495 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1519 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
63 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
276 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
418 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.9
0-3 km lapse rate
6.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Shreveport, LA (KBAD), 12:00Z

8.5 hours after it, 243 km from the path. March 25, 2017.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA at 12:00Z on 2017-03-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 63 joules per kilogram, CIN -156, lifted condensation level 777 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, Shreveport, LA at 12:00Z on 2017-03-25The 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 107 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 37 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
63 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-156 J/kg
Surface CAPE
278 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
777 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
107 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
271 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.6
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Little Rock radar (KLZK), 59 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:31 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
03:36 UTCTSTM WND DMGLonsdaleGarland, ARREPORTS FROM LOCAL FIRE CHIEF OF AROUND 40 STRUCTURES DAMAGED...INCLUDING HOMES...BARNS AND SHOPS.
03:49 UTCTSTM WND GST 70BentonSaline, ARLARGE LIMBS WERE REPORTED TO BE DOWN ALONG CONGO ROAD.
03:56 UTCTSTM WND DMGNe LonsdaleGarland, ARTREES REPORTED DOWN AT HIGHWAY 5 AND 9.
04:05 UTCTSTM WND DMGFerndalePulaski, ARTREES AND POWER LINES REPORTED TO BE DOWN.
04:06 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 Wsw Pinnacle MtnPulaski, ARLARGE SECTIONS OF A ROOF WERE RIPPED FROM A HOME OFF OF BARRETT ROAD IN WESTERN PULASKI COUNTY NEAR LAKE MAUMELLE.

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 March 24, 2017

13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 244:10 PM PDTEF0Clark, WA2.315$2,000
March 248:31 PM CDTEF2Harrison, TX2.7225$90,000
March 249:58 PM CDTEF0Garland, AR0.3150
March 2410:05 PM CDTEF1De Soto Parish, LA2.1220$100,000
March 2410:32 PM CDTEF2Saline, AR1.1150$400,000
March 2410:33 PM CDTEF1Saline, AR1.9200$300,000
March 2410:35 PM CDTEF1De Soto Parish, LA1.5110$60,000
March 2411:00 PM CDTEF1Natchitoches Parish, LA8.52,464$70,000
March 2411:20 PM CDTEF2Pulaski, AR2.11006$360,000
March 2411:23 PM CDTEF1Pulaski, AR2.2100$100,000
March 2411:49 PM CDTEF1Winn Parish, LA1.2350$3,000
March 2411:54 PM CDTEF1Jackson Parish, LA6.9100$15,000
March 2412:23 AM CDTEF0Harris, TX0.030$15,000

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.