Tornadoes · United States · Arkansas · 2017

EF0 tornado, Marmaduke, Arkansas, March 25, 2017

This EF0 tornado ran 0.8 miles across Greene County on March 25, 2017, touching down at 1:34 AM CDT and reaching 120 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $250,000 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
March 25, 2017
Touchdown
1:34 AM CDT (06:34 UTC)
Lifted
1:35 AM CDT (06:35 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.8 miles (1.3 km)
Path width
120 yards (110 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$250,000
County
Greene County
Touchdown point
36.183, -90.385
Lift-off point
36.189, -90.373
Record number
1703250034-01

The damage survey

11 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MEG, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 88 mph.

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

An upper level disturbance and cold front provided the focus for a few severe thunderstorms to occur across portions of the Midsouth during the early morning hours of March 25th.

The first damage occurred to a gas station just west of Highway 49. As the tornado moved through the south and east sections of Marmaduke, approximately 20 homes suffered roof damage. Several trees were snapped. Near the end of the track, the tornado damaged the roof and several roll-up doors of an industrial plant. Peak winds estimated at 80 mph.

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
17:08 UTC08:51 UTCWind AdvisoryMEG
05:35 UTC06:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMEG
06:08 UTC07:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMEG

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 05:18 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

6.6 hours before the tornado, 156 km from the path. March 25, 2017.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR 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 107 joules per kilogram, CIN -62, lifted condensation level 1523 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 2017-03-25The 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 211 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 55 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
107 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-62 J/kg
Surface CAPE
620 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1523 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
55 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
211 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
258 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

5.4 hours after it, 156 km from the path. March 25, 2017.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR 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 233 joules per kilogram, CIN -20, lifted condensation level 545 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 2017-03-25The 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 131 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 56 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
233 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-20 J/kg
Surface CAPE
235 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
545 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
56 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
131 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
196 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
1.2
0-3 km lapse rate
6.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Memphis radar (KNQA), 104 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 06:33 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
06:22 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 N BrooklandCraighead, ARROOF DAMAGE TO A HOME, METAL CARPORT DESTROYED, AND SEVERAL TREES SNAPPED/UPROOTED. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR.
06:27 UTCTSTM WND DMG4 Nne ParagouldGreene, ARTHE UPPER PORTIONS OF A WOODEN STORAGE SHED WERE BLOWN ACROSS HIGHWAY 49. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR.
06:45 UTCTSTM WND DMGMarmadukeGreene, ARTIN ROOF BLEW OFF AND TOOK TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN IN MARMADUKE.
06:50 UTCTSTM WND DMGMarmadukeGreene, ARSHINGLES AND TAR PAPER RIPPED OFF OF HOUSE AND SOME TREES DOWN IN MARMADUKE.
07:10 UTCTSTM WND DMGPiggottClay, ARFRONT OF WOODED RETAIL BUILDING/OVERHANG COLLAPSED.
07:29 UTCTSTM WND GST 625 E BlythevilleMississippi, AR

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 25, 2017

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 256:21 PM CDTEF0Ralls, MO6.820

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.