EF1 tornado, Catesville to Lawson, 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

2:03 AM CDT (07:03 UTC)

Lifted

2:09 AM CDT (07:09 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

5.1 miles (8.2 km)

Path width

1,200 yards (1097 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$70,000

County

Union County

Touchdown point

33.188, -92.532

Lift-off point

33.223, -92.454

Record number

1804140103-01

56 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS SHV, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.

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

A strong upper level trough of low pressure progressed east across the Southern Plains during the afternoon of April 13th, with a large warm sector of warm/humid air having expanded north across much of the Ark-La-Tex. A capping inversion delayed the onset of thunderstorm development until the late afternoon, where it eroded and large scale forcing increased with shortwave perturbations ahead of the trough and along/just ahead of a dry line as it mixed east to the Interstate 35 corridor or North and Central Texas. Given the moderate instability and strong wind shear that developed with the lead shortwave, scattered supercell thunderstorms developed across Northeast Texas during the late afternoon and moved into portions of Southwest Arkansas during the early evening, producing several reports of damaging winds, funnel clouds, and even an isolated tornado that touched down near Umpire in Northern Howard County. While a lull in the storms was observed during the mid and late evening, a line of severe thunderstorms developed along the dryline south of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, and progressed east into Southwest Arkansas after midnight and throughout the early morning hours on April 14th. Damaging winds were prevalent at first with this line of severe thunderstorms, but a number of notches developed along the squall line as these storms moved into Union County Arkansas, resulting in two tornadoes touching down across Southern and Eastern Union County south and east of El Dorado. These severe thunderstorms exited Southcentral Arkansas after 230 am on the 14th.

An EF-1 tornado, with estimated maximum winds around 110 mph, touched down along Highway 167 just north of Wingfield Lake Road and quickly intensified over the Faircrest community. The tornado reached its maximum intensity and width along Peace and Mount Union Roads. It uprooted and snapped numerous trees in this location and damaged the roofs of several homes. It also rolled and destroyed a travel trailer and did roof damage to a number of mobile homes as well. The tornado moved northeast and did sporadic tree damage along Iron Mountain Road before it crossed Bayou de Loutre. The tornado continued northeast and uprooted a few trees along Patterson Loop Road and Hibanks Road. The tornado then re-strengthened as it crossed Highway 82 and uprooted and snapped several trees near the Hope Landing organization just west of Spencer Lane. Minor tree damage was noted just north of this location before the tornado finally lifted.

An EF-1 tornado, with estimated maximum winds around 110 mph, touched down along Nick Springs Road just east of Spencer Lane. It uprooted and snapped trees here along with breaking several large branches. The tornado continued northeast and intersected Lawson Road, where it rapidly intensified to its strongest and widest point. It did considerable tree damage here and damaged the roofs of a number of homes, mobile homes, and barns in this location. Widespread tree damage was found here that included numerous uprooted and snapped trees. The tornado continued northeast where it uprooted several trees along Frisby Road, with a number of trees landing on homes. The tornado then continued northeast where it uprooted a number of trees along Rhodes Chapel Road before lifting.

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

33 minutes of warning. NWS SHV issued a tornado warning for this county at 06:30 UTC, 33 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 07:03 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 02:54 UTC and running to 09:02 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.

El Dorado/Goodwin (ELD), 30 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 151 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:02 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.