Unrated tornado, Shoffner to Algoa, Arkansas, December 10, 2021

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 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. Unratedthis tornado

   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

Unrated

Date

December 10, 2021

Touchdown

6:15 PM CST (00:15 UTC)

Lifted

6:23 PM CST (00:23 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

6.7 miles (10.7 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Jackson County

Touchdown point

35.475, -91.231

Lift-off point

35.531, -91.134

Record number

2112101815-01

24 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LZK, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 135 mph.

• Three large trees snapped. Likely straight line winds as the RFD started to wrap around shortly before the tornado developed just northeast.
• Travel trailer flipped over
• Grain bins partially collapsed.
• Tree limbs were on the road. Spotter crossed some debris at this intersection.

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

As December 10 approached, chances of severe weather began to increase from Arkansas northeastward across the Ohio Valley. As the day progressed, numerous thunderstorms developed and intensified from Arkansas into Missouri and points to the east. Numerous tornadoes occurred (12 in Arkansas) and sadly, two people died in Arkansas with more deaths reported elsewhere. Perhaps the only benefit from the severe weather event across the area was some beneficial rain, but rainfall coverage was not uniform and several locations missed out on rain altogether.

This tornado began near the intersection of Jackson County Road 21 and State Highway 17. Limbs were scattered on the road. ||The tornado moved over open farmland. There was no visible damage to assess. However, a storm chaser in the area provided video proof of the funnel touching the ground, and this was near the intersection of Jackson County Road 30 and Arkansas Highway 145 South. ||The tornado lifted southwest of Amagon. It may not have been in contact with the ground the entire time.

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

24 minutes of warning. NWS LZK issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:51 UTC, 24 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:08 UTC and running to 05:00 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:37 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.

Newport (M19), 15 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Memphis radar (KNQA), 120 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:14 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

32 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.