Tornadoes · United States · Arkansas · 2021

EF1 tornado, Richmond to Pine Prairie, Arkansas, April 9, 2021

From Richmond to Pine Prairie, this EF1 tornado ran 2.4 miles across Little River County on April 9, 2021, touching down at 11:31 PM CDT and reaching 150 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5,000 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 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.

The record

Rating
EF1
Date
April 9, 2021
Touchdown
11:31 PM CDT (04:31 UTC)
Lifted
11:33 PM CDT (04:33 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
2.4 miles (3.9 km)
Path width
150 yards (137 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000
County
Little River County
Touchdown point
33.622, -94.220
Lift-off point
33.620, -94.178
Record number
2104092231-01

The damage survey

32 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 90 mph.

  • One tree north, one tree SE
  • we could see uproots down at the end of a field we could not get to

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 strong upper trough dove southeast across the Northern and Central Plains on April 9th, reinforcing a cold front southeast into the Southern Plains. The approach of this storm system enhanced a southerly low level jet, which allowed for the return of a warm front north across East Texas, North Louisiana, Southern Arkansas, and extreme Southeast Oklahoma, resulting in very warm, humid, and unstable air in advance of the front. The combination of this increasing instability, wind shear, and strong forcing ahead of the cold front and associated upper level storm system resulted in a prolonged period of severe thunderstorms across much of the region, with numerous reports of large hail and occasional damaging winds across Southwest Arkansas. An isolated tornado also touched down across Southern Little River County along a line of severe thunderstorms along the cold front. These storms finally exited Southwest Arkansas during the early morning hours of April 10th with the passage of the cold front.

A brief EF-1 tornado with estimated maximum winds near 90 mph touched down near Little River 21 and the intersection of Little River 15 and Little River 713, where an area of concentrated convergent tree damage occurred in the midst of much wider straight line wind damage throughout the southern portion of Little River County. Damage to structures in the tornado path was very minimal. It is possible that the tornado path extends farther than what the storm survey indicated, but the actual survey length was limited by road access.

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

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:19 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.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the tornado touched down, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Shreveport, LA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Apr 9, 10:56 PM CDT, 35 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Apr 9, 10:56 PM CDT, 35 minutes before
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Hazardous weather outlook, Apr 9, 8:49 PM CDT, 2 hours 42 minutes before
Hazardous Weather Outlook
National Weather Service Shreveport LA
849 PM CDT Fri Apr 9 2021

ARZ050-051-059>061-070>073-LAZ001>006-010>014-017>022-OKZ077-
TXZ096-097-108>112-124>126-136>138-149>153-165>167-101100-
Sevier-Howard-Little River-Hempstead-Nevada-Miller-Lafayette-
Columbia-Union-Caddo-Bossier-Webster-Claiborne-Lincoln-De Soto-
Red River-Bienville-Jackson-Ouachita-Sabine-Natchitoches-Winn-
Grant-Caldwell-La Salle-McCurtain-Bowie-Franklin-Titus-Camp-
Morris-Cass-Wood-Upshur-Marion-Smith-Gregg-Harrison-Cherokee-Rusk-
Panola-Nacogdoches-Shelby-Angelina-San Augustine-
849 PM CDT Fri Apr 9 2021

This Hazardous Weather Outlook is for portions of south central
Arkansas, southwest Arkansas, north central Louisiana, northwest
Louisiana, southeast Oklahoma, east Texas and northeast Texas.

.DAY ONE...Tonight...

Scattered thunderstorms are rapidly developing across the
ArkLaTex. Some of these storms may be severe, with damaging winds,
large hail, and tornadoes possible. Additional thunderstorm
development is possible this evening over portions of East Texas
and North Louisiana, ahead of a severe squall line that will
develop over Eastern Oklahoma and quickly shift southeast across
the region from mid evening through the overnight hours. The
severe weather threat will become more pronounced with this squall
line, with damaging winds, large hail, isolated tornadoes, and
locally heavy rainfall possible. These storms will diminish from
northwest to southeast late tonight.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...Saturday through Thursday...

Scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms will be possible
across the region Tuesday through Thursday. However, no hazardous
weather is expected.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

Activation of emergency management personnel...amateur radio
operators...and storm spotters will be needed this afternoon
through tonight across the region.

09

In the hours before

Local storm report, Apr 9, 11:05 PM CDT, 26 minutes before
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Local storm report, Apr 9, 11:11 PM CDT, 20 minutes before
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Local storm report, Apr 9, 11:12 PM CDT, 19 minutes before
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Special weather statement, Apr 9, 11:12 PM CDT, 19 minutes before
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Local storm report, Apr 9, 11:23 PM CDT, 8 minutes before
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Local storm report, Apr 9, 11:31 PM CDT, 0 minutes before
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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.

Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 00:00Z

4.5 hours before the tornado, 134 km from the path. April 10, 2021.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA at 00:00Z on 2021-04-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 148 joules per kilogram, CIN -321, lifted condensation level 2441 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, Shreveport, LA at 00:00Z on 2021-04-10The 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 329 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 52 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
148 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-321 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1477 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2441 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
52 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
329 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
421 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Texarkana Regional/Webb (TXK), 27 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
00:00 UTC

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

The radar

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 134 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:29 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2021 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 9, 2021

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 98:04 PM CDTEF1Attala, MS0.9250$150,000
April 98:28 PM CDTEF0Rankin, MS11.050$15,000
April 911:37 PM CDTEF1Lincoln, MS4.4530$80,000
April 912:31 AM CDTEF1Marion, MS7.61,200$90,000

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.