EF0 tornado, Ross Van Ness to Indian, Arkansas, April 7, 2021

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

April 7, 2021

Touchdown

8:24 PM CDT (01:24 UTC)

Lifted

8:27 PM CDT (01:27 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

2.6 miles (4.2 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$30,000

County

Chicot County

Touchdown point

33.068, -91.375

Lift-off point

33.092, -91.340

Record number

2104071924-01

10 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS JAN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.

• Shed destroyed, overturned and rolled. Large RV overturned.
• a few large branches and smaller trees downed, approximate start of event.
• Smaller section of shingled roof removed, attached garage wall and connecting wall damaged.
• A few older wooden power poles downed.

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

Moist southerly flow and daytime heating ahead of a strong trough combined with sufficient wind shear to bring a line of severe storms through the region. Within this line, a few tornadoes and some wind damage occurred across Louisiana and Arkansas and the Delta of Mississippi.

A brief EF0 tornado developed on the evening of April 7th near the Boeuf River near Lafouche Lake Road. The tornado moved northeast doing intermittent minor tree damage until near Stephenson Lane and Ball Road where several trees were damaged and a few were uprooted. A flag pole near the fire station was bent over in this area as well. The tornado continued northeast at EF-0 intensity before dissipating in a forested area west of Hanna Road. The max wind speed was 85 mph.

An EF1 tornado developed on the evening of April 7, near the intersection of Costello Road and Coffey Road in West Carroll Parish, LA. The tornado tracked northeast, crossed Hwy 585 near Creech Road, where a metal building system structure was significantly damaged, including the roof being removed and thrown. A home sustained some roof damage as well with several shingles missing. The tornado continued to the northeast, damaged more homes and destroyed a central pivot irrigation system southwest of Kilbourne. The tornado then continued northeast, crossed Hwy 159 north of Kilbourne and moved just north of due east along E Arkla Road. Several structures here were damaged including an outbuilding that was completely destroyed. Finally, the tornado crossed over the roadway and into farmland in Chicot County, AR where it flipped over an additional central pivot irrigation system and damaged more trees before lifting northeast of Kilbourne, south of Albright Road. The max wind speed was 95 mph. The total path length was 9.21 miles.

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

19 minutes of warning. NWS JAN issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:05 UTC, 19 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:50 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:33 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.

Greenville Municipal (GLH), 57 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Jackson/Brandon,MS radar (KDGX), 156 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:22 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 2021 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are

10 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.