Tornadoes · United States · Arkansas · 2018

EF0 tornado, Eight Mile, Arkansas, February 24, 2018

This EF0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Jackson County on February 24, 2018, touching down at 5:11 PM CST and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $20,000 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
February 24, 2018
Touchdown
5:11 PM CST (23:11 UTC)
Lifted
5:12 PM CST (23:12 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$20,000
County
Jackson County
Touchdown point
35.453, -91.054
Lift-off point
35.454, -91.051
Record number
1802241711-01

The damage survey

6 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 100 mph.

  • Trailer would have rolled but held up from large tree along County Road 210

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

A line of thunderstorms moved through Arkansas on February 24th, bringing damaging winds, flash flooding, and a small tornado to Arkansas.

A very small tornado touched down on a property in|Beedeville, Arkansas. This tornado snapped a few trees and uplifted |two outbuildings, spreading debris into the fields and aloft into nearby|trees. A tree fell on a third outbuilding. The most significant damage|occurred as a metal beam from one of the outbuildings smashed the cab of|a tractor.

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.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:01 UTC and running to 01:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
16:06 UTC19:00 UTCDense Fog AdvisoryLZK
17:01 UTC01:00 UTCTornado WatchLZK
21:37 UTC02:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningLZK
21:42 UTC02:15 UTCFlash Flood WarningLZK
22:14 UTC23:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLZK
01:56 UTC05:00 UTCFlood WarningLZK
02:06 UTC05:00 UTCFlood 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:53 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 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), 12:00Z

11.2 hours before the tornado, 122 km from the path. February 24, 2018.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 2018-02-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 42 joules per kilogram, CIN -186, lifted condensation level 568 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 2018-02-24The 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 176 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 49 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
42 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-186 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
568 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
49 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
176 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
196 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
3.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Memphis radar (KNQA), 108 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:08 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
22:26 UTCTSTM WND DMGWordenWhite, ARA NUMBER OF TREES WERE SNAPPED AND DOWNED. A CARPORT AND DECK SUSTAINED DAMAGE.
22:46 UTCTSTM WND GST 633 Ese Oil TroughIndependence, AR
23:15 UTCTSTM WND DMGEgyptCraighead, ARTREES DOWN IN WESTERN CRAIGHEAD COUNTY...EGYPT AREA. CORRECTED TIME
23:25 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 W Cherry ValleyCross, ARA HOME AND METAL SHOP BUILDING WERE DAMAGED ON HIGHWAY 42 BETWEEN HICKORY RIDGE AND CHERRY VALLEY.
23:39 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 W JonesboroCraighead, ARTREES DOWN IN WEST JONESBORO.
23:40 UTCTSTM WND DMGEgyptCraighead, ARTREES DOWN IN WESTERN CRAIGHEAD COUNTY, EGYPT AREA.
23:40 UTCTSTM WND GST 70TrumannPoinsett, ARLIGHT POLES AND TREES DOWN IN THE TRUMANN AREA. TIME ADJUSTED BASED ON RADAR.
23:50 UTCTSTM WND DMGMarked TreePoinsett, AR
23:54 UTCTSTM WND GST 70TrumannPoinsett, ARLIGHT POLES AND TREES DOWN IN THE TRUMANN AREA.
23:55 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 S BonoCraighead, ARPAVILLION DESTROYED NEAR BONO, MULTIPLE REPORTS OF WIND DAMAGE IN THE AREA.
00:15 UTCTSTM WND DMGGieseckCross, ARPOWER LINES DOWN ALONG HIGHWAY 75.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2018 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of February 24, 2018

29 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
February 243:53 PM CSTEF2Robertson, TN to KY12.935011$850,000
February 245:19 PM CSTEF1Barren, KY1.950$280,000
February 245:20 PM CSTEF1Cross, AR3.275$500,000
February 245:21 PM CSTEF2Clay, AR to MO41.915015$2.5 million
February 246:06 PM CSTEF2Mississippi, AR9.91001$1.0 million
February 246:30 PM CSTEF2New Madrid, MO0.91502$750,000
February 246:51 PM CSTEF0Obion, TN5.675$50,000
February 247:07 PM CSTEF1Obion, TN3.24503$2.0 million
February 247:17 PM CSTEF0Gibson, TN4.375$25,000
February 247:21 PM CSTEF0Weakley, TN5.275$50,000
February 247:36 PM CSTEF0Weakley, TN7.475$25,000
February 247:37 PM CSTEF1Calloway, KY8.3125$450,000
February 247:37 PM CSTEF1McCracken, KY1.9100$85,000
February 247:42 PM CSTEF1Graves, KY1.2100$50,000
February 247:50 PM CSTEF1Calloway, KY1.4100$550,000
February 248:02 PM CSTEF1Henry, TN3.975$50,000
February 248:44 PM CSTEF0Christian, KY5.375$20,000
February 248:45 PM CSTEF2Christian, KY5.42009$6.0 million
February 248:50 PM CSTEF1Montgomery, TN5.3150$1.0 million
February 248:55 PM CSTEF0Christian, KY0.550$6,000
February 249:03 PM CSTEF2Montgomery, TN4.12002$7.0 million
February 249:15 PM CSTEF0Logan, KY2.9300$30,000
February 249:19 PM CSTEF1Robertson, TN3.6150$50,000
February 249:21 PM CSTEF1Butler, KY1.4100$20,000
February 249:50 PM CSTEF0Simpson, KY1.7100$50,000
February 2410:33 PM CSTEF2Green, KY1.3100$130,000
February 2412:03 AM ESTEF1Clermont, OH3.5200$85,000
February 2412:13 AM ESTEF1Brown, OH4.9300$65,000
February 2412:50 AM ESTEF1Garrard, KY0.1100$50,000

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.