EF0 tornado, Slovak, Arkansas, May 18, 2019

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

May 18, 2019

Touchdown

5:55 PM CDT (22:55 UTC)

Lifted

5:56 PM CDT (22:56 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.3 miles (0.4 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Prairie County

Touchdown point

34.660, -91.640

Lift-off point

34.661, -91.636

Record number

1905181655-01

While it heated up, it was not dry everywhere on the 15th. Before the ridge of high pressure could get here, a stationary front was in place across northeast sections of the state. Surrounding the front, scattered thunderstorms popped up during the afternoon. Some of the storms became strong to severe.||Mainly hail occurred with the strongest storms. The largest stones were about the size of a lime (two inches in diameter), and were reported just southwest of Salado (Independence County) at 711 pm CDT. Quarter to golf ball size hail was produced at few miles west of Pocahontas (Randolph County), north of Huff, southwest of Batesville, and at Cushman (all in Independence County).||A few days later (on the 18th), a powerful storm system went from the southern Plains to the upper Midwest, with a cold front dragged into the region by the system. As the day began, storms were ongoing from Texas into Oklahoma. A line of storms eventually made it into western Arkansas by 200 pm CDT.||Just like on the 1st, part of the line bowed out (indicating the presence of strong to damaging winds) from Fort Smith (Sebastian County) to Clarksville (Johnson County). There was extensive tree damage, with trees on houses and blocking roads. Hardest hit areas inlcuded Paris and Scranton (both in Logan County). Gusts likely exceeded 90 mph.||Along the way, several photos showed a lot of dust kicked up by the wind. Gustnadoes or dust devils were also generated as the wind speed rapidly increased. There was a weak tornado (rated EF0) produced three miles west of Slovak (Prairie County). A couple of grain bins were dented or pushed in.

A weak EF0 tornado was confirmed near Slovak from thunderstorms that occurred Saturday evening. Damage was minimal as the tornado remained over mostly farmland.

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 21:52 UTC and running to 01:00 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 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 19:59 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 Little Rock radar (KLZK), 60 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:57 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 2019 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are

24 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.