EF1 tornado, Van Buren to Graphic, Arkansas, May 3, 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 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.

Rating

EF1

Date

May 3, 2021

Touchdown

10:06 PM CDT (03:06 UTC)

Lifted

10:10 PM CDT (03:10 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

2.7 miles (4.3 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$20,000

County

Crawford County

Touchdown point

35.555, -94.153

Lift-off point

35.575, -94.112

Record number

2105032106-01

41 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TSA, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 107 mph.

• Crawford County Courthouse building had significant roof cover damage.
• Numerous homes in Van Buren experienced roof damage, and trees fell onto some homes.

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

Severe thunderstorms developed across portions of northwestern Arkansas during the evening of the 3rd, along and east of a stationary front that stretched across the area. The air mass across much of northwestern Arkansas became very unstable ahead of the storms, and wind shear across the region increased as an upper level disturbance approached from the west. These conditions supported the development of bowing line segments, which produced several tornadoes, and damaging wind gusts.

This is the fourth segment of a four segment tornado. After moving back into Crawford County, the tornado removed a large portion of the roof of the Crawford County Courthouse in Van Buren. Numerous homes and businesses were also damaged in Van Buren, and numerous power poles and trees were snapped by the tornado. This very large tornado then moved northeast across portions of Rudy and Alma, and then dissipated southeast of Mountainburg. Many trees were snapped or uprooted, outbuildings were destroyed, homes and businesses were damaged, and numerous power poles were snapped. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in this segment of the tornado was 100 to 110 mph.

This tornado uprooted numerous trees, and blew down power poles. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in the tornado was 90 to 100 mph.

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

28 minutes of warning. NWS TSA issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:38 UTC, 28 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:15 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 02:13 UTC and running to 07:33 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:59 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 Western Arkansas radar (KSRX), 37 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:04 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

30 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.