EF1 tornado, Spring Hill to Rocky Mound, Arkansas, December 1, 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

December 1, 2018

Touchdown

1:25 AM CST (07:25 UTC)

Lifted

1:34 AM CST (07:34 UTC)

On the ground

9 minutes

Path length

8.5 miles (13.7 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$300,000

County

Hempstead County

Touchdown point

33.596, -93.666

Lift-off point

33.653, -93.534

Record number

1812010125-01

28 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 107 mph.

• Tin metal roof thrown into a tree and power pole snapped off of US route 29.
• . Tin metal roof thrown into a tree and power pole snapped off of US route 29.
• Tornado crossed County Rd 3/Patmos Rd damaging power poles downing lines and uprooting a pine tree.
• 20 trees snapped along Country Club Dr.

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

A vigorous upper level trough moved into the Southern Plains during the late afternoon, evening and overnight hours of November 30th-December 1st. Upper level forcing in response to this disturbance moved into the Middle Red River Valley of Northeast Texas, Southeast Oklahoma and Southwest Arkansas during the evening hours of November 30th and strong to severe thunderstorms erupted north and west of the Interstate 30 Corridor as a result. The atmosphere was moderately unstable for the last day in November but strong deep layer and low level directional shear was present. This resulted in supercell type thunderstorms and bowing thunderstorm complexes, one of which moved across Northeast Texas into Southeast Oklahoma and Southwest Arkansas producing widespread wind damage all along its track. Numerous trees and power lines were downed with these storms and one storm in Hempstead County, Arkansas produced a brief EF-1 tornado near the city of Hope along the northern end of a bow echo. No injuries were reported with this event.

An EF-1 tornado with maximum estimated winds near 107 mph touched down along County Road 1041 about one mile northwest of the Spring Hill community. Tree limbs were downed and a trunk was snapped off of a tree. More concentrated damage was found on County Road 174, where a barn's tin metal roof was completely removed, windows were blown out of two homes, shingles removed from roofs, trees fallen onto several homes, a shed was shifted off of its foundation, and a carport was destroyed. In addition, approximately 15 trees were either uprooted or snapped at their trunk. As the tornado continued northeast across Highway 29, it ripped the tin metal roof off of a heavy machinery shelter and led to the column anchorage failure of the structure. The metal roof was thrown and twisted into a tree behind it. The tornado continued to uproot and snap trees as it crossed Country Club Drive, East 28th Street, and Highway 32 before lifting along Highway 278 just southeast of Hope.

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.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 00:43 UTC and running to 08:00 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 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.

Texarkana Regional/Webb (TXK), 41 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 132 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:25 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.

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

39 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.