Tornadoes · United States · Arkansas · 2019

EF0 tornado, Hooker, Arkansas, May 2, 2019

This EF0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Greene County on May 2, 2019, touching down at 4:29 PM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $30,000 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
May 2, 2019
Touchdown
4:29 PM CDT (21:29 UTC)
Lifted
4:30 PM CDT (21:30 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
$30,000
County
Greene County
Touchdown point
36.253, -90.463
Lift-off point
36.255, -90.461
Record number
1905021529-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A passing upper level disturbance interacted with an unstable atmosphere to create all facets of severe weather across portions of northeast Arkansas during the late afternoon and early evening hours of May 2nd.

Tornado reported near Knob, Arkansas with damage to a home on Greene Road 402.

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

The warnings

18 minutes of warning. NWS MEG issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:11 UTC, 18 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:15 UTC and running to 00:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:15 UTC00:00 UTCTornado WatchMEG
21:11 UTC21:45 UTCTornado WarningMEG
21:59 UTC00:00 UTCFlood AdvisoryMEG
22:45 UTC00:45 UTCFlood AdvisoryMEG
22:54 UTC23:11 UTCTornado WarningMEG
01:51 UTC11:42 UTCFlood WarningMEG

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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

9.5 hours before the tornado, 165 km from the path. May 2, 2019.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 2019-05-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 18 joules per kilogram, CIN -199, lifted condensation level 888 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 2019-05-02The 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 24 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 40 knots.193958Sfc1 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
18 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-199 J/kg
Surface CAPE
17 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
888 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
24 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
10 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Little Rock, AR (KBYH), 00:00Z

2.5 hours after it, 165 km from the path. May 3, 2019.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 2019-05-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -57186, lifted condensation level 914 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 00:00Z on 2019-05-03The 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 10 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 21 knots.1939Sfc1 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-57186 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1377 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
914 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
10 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
14 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Corning (4M9), 24 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
19:35 UTC30° 9 kt1016.9
19:55 UTC360° 10 kt1016.9BR
20:15 UTC350° 10 kt1016.3BR
20:35 UTC10° 9 kt171016.3
20:55 UTC30° 13 kt1015.6HZ
21:15 UTC30° 14 kt1015.6VCTS
21:35 UTC50° 10 kt1016.3BR
21:55 UTC20° 9 kt1015.6BR
22:15 UTC30° 11 kt1015.6
22:35 UTC30° 12 kt1015.2HZ
22:55 UTC30° 9 kt1014.9BR
23:15 UTC30° 10 kt1014.6BR

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

The radar

The Memphis radar (KNQA), 114 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:31 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
21:29 UTCTORNADO4 Ne LafeGreene, AREMERGENCY MANAGER REPORTED TORNADO IN KNOB, AR.
21:29 UTCTORNADO4 Ne LafeGreene, AREMERGENCY MANAGER REPORTED TORNADO NEAR KNOB, AR.
21:47 UTCTSTM WND DMG4 Ne LafeGreene, ARPOSSIBLE TORNADO DAMAGE TO A HOME ON GREENE ROAD 402.
22:02 UTCTORNADO1 Wnw BlythevilleMississippi, ARBRIEF TORNADO REPORTED NEAR GOSNELL.
22:02 UTCTORNADO1 Wnw BlythevilleMississippi, ARTORNADO REPORTED ON THE GROUND NEAR GOSNELL.
22:10 UTCTSTM WND DMGGosnellMississippi, ARLARGE TREE UPROOTED ON MOODY STREET IN GOSNELL.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2019 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 2, 2019

15 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 26:30 AM CDTEF1Shelby, TX0.6118$10,000
May 26:40 AM CDTEF1De Soto Parish, LA1.0240$10,000
May 27:08 AM CDTEF1De Soto Parish, LA0.2330$150,000
May 212:37 PM CDTEF1Pulaski, AR1.5200$100,000
May 21:14 PM CDTEF0Pulaski, AR5.1500$100,000
May 21:26 PM CDTEF0Pulaski, AR3.780
May 21:33 PM CDTEF0Pulaski, AR1.050$30,000
May 21:35 PM CDTEF0Faulkner, AR0.750$1,000
May 22:20 PM CDTEF0Prairie, AR4.5100
May 22:40 PM CDTEF0Jackson, AR0.250
May 26:02 PM CDTEF0Mississippi, AR0.250$1,000
May 26:11 PM CDTEF0Pemiscot, MO2.8150$5,000
May 26:20 PM CDTEF0Obion, TN0.2100$5,000
May 26:43 PM CDTEF0Obion, TN0.1100$5,000
May 29:20 PM CDTUnratedVal Verde, TX0.410

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.