Tornadoes · United States · Arkansas · 2017

EF1 tornado, Solo, Arkansas, March 29, 2017

This EF1 tornado ran 2.4 miles across Pope County on March 29, 2017, touching down at 7:23 PM CDT and reaching 150 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 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
March 29, 2017
Touchdown
7:23 PM CDT (00:23 UTC)
Lifted
7:27 PM CDT (00:27 UTC)
On the ground
4 minutes
Path length
2.4 miles (3.9 km)
Path width
150 yards (137 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Pope County
Touchdown point
35.549, -93.018
Lift-off point
35.574, -92.987
Record number
1703291823-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Severe thunderstorms moved through Arkansas on March 29, 2017 with mainly large hail and damaging winds.

There was a report of a rain-wrapped tornado on Gunter Mountain Road west northwest of Hector. Mainly tree damage was noted in remote Pope County. No structures were affected. Trained spotters and Pope county deputies reported a very brief touchdown.

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

The warnings

17 minutes of warning. NWS LZK issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:06 UTC, 17 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:20 UTC and running to 05:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
21:20 UTC05:00 UTCTornado WatchLZK
23:26 UTC00:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLZK
00:06 UTC00:30 UTCTornado WarningLZK
00:27 UTC00:46 UTCTornado WarningLZK
03:32 UTC03:59 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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.

Springfield, MO (KSGF), 00:00Z

0.4 hours before the tornado, 165 km from the path. March 30, 2017.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Springfield, MO at 00:00Z on 2017-03-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 708 joules per kilogram, CIN -5, lifted condensation level 1134 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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, Springfield, MO at 00:00Z on 2017-03-30The 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 199 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 66 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
708 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-5 J/kg
Surface CAPE
949 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1134 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
66 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
199 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
271 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.9
Supercell composite
4.6
0-3 km lapse rate
7.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Springfield, MO (KSGF), 12:00Z

11.6 hours after it, 165 km from the path. March 30, 2017.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Springfield, MO at 12:00Z on 2017-03-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -99046, lifted condensation level 934 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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, Springfield, MO at 12:00Z on 2017-03-30The 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 67 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 41 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-99046 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
934 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
67 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
65 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Little Rock radar (KLZK), 105 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:25 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
00:18 UTCTORNADO2 Wnw HectorPope, ARREPORT OF RAIN-WRAPPED TORNADO ON GUNTER MOUNTAIN ROAD WNW OF HECTOR.
02:35 UTCHAIL 1DamascusVan Buren, 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 29, 2017

17 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 292:08 AM CDTEF0Tarrant, TX6.5200$300,000
March 292:10 AM CDTEF0Tarrant, TX11.4500$100,000
March 292:31 AM CDTEF1Denton, TX1.6130$600,000
March 295:38 AM CDTEF1Gregg, TX6.0480$60,000
March 2910:34 AM CDTEF0Harris, TX0.350$150,000
March 291:23 PM CDTEF0Liberty, TX0.120
March 292:55 PM CDTEF1Harris, TX0.450$27,000
March 293:00 PM CDTEF0Harris, TX2.0200$100,000
March 293:03 PM CDTEF1Harris, TX2.72502$300,000
March 293:13 PM CDTEF1Tyler, TX1.3600$60,000
March 293:25 PM CDTEF1Tyler, TX0.5300$20,000
March 293:35 PM CDTEF0Chambers, TX0.130
March 294:12 PM CDTEF1Jasper, TX0.425$10,000
March 294:34 PM CDTEF1Newton, TX12.2800$50,000
March 298:11 PM CDTEF2Allen Parish, LA3.6100$125,000
March 2911:00 PM CDTEF1Dent, MO2.5200$50,000
March 2911:16 PM CDTEF1Wilkinson, MS2.3200

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.