EF1 tornado, White to Crossett Muni Arpt, Arkansas, April 14, 2018

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

April 14, 2018

Touchdown

2:42 AM CDT (07:42 UTC)

Lifted

2:47 AM CDT (07:47 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

2.7 miles (4.4 km)

Path width

600 yards (549 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$110,000

County

Ashley County

Touchdown point

33.017, -92.007

Lift-off point

33.032, -91.963

Record number

1804140142-01

51 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS JAN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.

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

During the evening hours of Friday, April 13th, scattered supercells developed across northeast Louisiana within the broad warm sector of a strong surface cyclone centered near the Kansas/Nebraska border. These storms exhibited rotation almost immediately, and began producing tornadoes across northern Louisiana. Two tornadoes occurred in the NWS Jackson forecast area in association with a cell that tracked from near Rayville, LA north northeastward along the Boeuf River. These storms also produced strong wind as they continued into southeast Arkansas. Overnight, as the cold front associated with the storm system began to advance eastward, a quasi-linear convective system developed over the ArkLaTex and advanced eastward. These storms reached the western portion of the NWS Jackson forecast area after 2:30 am on Saturday, April 14th. Six tornadoes occurred during the early morning hours across southeast Arkansas and northeast Louisiana in association with this line of storms. The storms continued to produce damaging straight-line winds, knocking down trees and power lines in many areas, through the morning hours as it continued eastward into Mississippi. A few additional tornadoes also developed along the line, including one in Flowood, one near Noxapater, one in western Lamar County, and an EF2 tornado in Meridian.

This tornado originated in a flooded lowland over the Casey Jones Wildlife Management Area. The beginning point is estimated due to a lack of road access. The tornado tracked eastward across Ashley County roads 211, 703, 205, 3, 201, 202, and 2. Along its path, the tornado produced prolific tree damage, with many large uprooted and some snapped trees. A few homes were damaged by fallen trees, some significantly, and a few also sustained shingle damage. The tornado ended in a wooded area north of Ashley County Road 2 and south of Ashley County Road 229. Maximum estimated wind speed was 100 mph.

The tornado began near the intersection of Ashley County Road 7 E and Ashley Co Road 7 South and tracked east northeastward. It reached peak intensity as it moved across Ashley County Road 23, where a significant number of trees were uprooted and a few were snapped. The tornado then began to roughly parallel US 82 from Ashley County Road 149 eastward to Ashley County Road 24. It lifted near Hanks Creek just north of US 82 before reaching US 425. There was also some structural damage to small sheds along the path. Maximum estimated wind speed was 100 mph.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 03:14 UTC and running to 11:00 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:53 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.

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 185 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:43 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 2018 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are

38 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.