EF3 Springdale tornado, Arkansas, March 30, 2022

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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3

Date

March 30, 2022

Touchdown

4:04 AM CDT (09:04 UTC)

Lifted

4:12 AM CDT (09:12 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

5.2 miles (8.4 km)

Path width

350 yards (320 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

7

Property damage

$20 million

County

Washington County

Touchdown point

36.122, -94.156

Lift-off point

36.185, -94.107

Record number

2203300304-01

58 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TSA, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 143 mph.

• Many downed trees on golf course
• Car flipped upside down in driveway

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

Strong to severe thunderstorms developed across western Oklahoma during the evening of the 29th, along and ahead of a dry line. The storms moved east across northwestern Arkansas during the early morning hours of the 30th. Weak instability combined with very strong low level wind shear to create an environment that supported intense low level circulations in the thunderstorms. One thunderstorm produced a strong tornado that produced severe damage across portions of Johnson and Springdale, Arkansas.

This tornado developed south of Joyce Boulevard and east of Steele Boulevard, southwest of the Northwest Arkansas Mall. The tornado damaged businesses, blew down trees, rolled a van, and then moved across the western portion of the mall. As it moved north-northeast from near the mall, the tornado blew down a cellular phone tower, and destroyed a building near Main Drive. As it continued north-northeast, it damaged numerous homes and businesses, and blew down numerous trees. Major portions of the roofs of several homes were blown off on Pagosa Street, and a vehicle was flipped over in a driveway. The tornado then destroyed the gymnasium at George Elementary School, which was a metal building structure. A home just north of the gym was severely damaged, and a couple nearby large, wooden electrical poles were snapped. A large, metal building structure was destroyed as the tornado neared Highway 412, with several other businesses nearby severely damaged. A hangar was destroyed and other buildings were damaged on the east side of the Springdale Airport. Minor damage to trees and to the roofs of homes continued until the tornado neared Emma Avenue, where it appeared to dissipate. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in the tornado was 135 to 145 mph. Debris from the tornado was carried into Benton County. This tornado injured seven people, and damaged or destroyed at least 135 homes, and damaged or destroyed at least 40 businesses.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 04:52 UTC and running to 11:46 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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 05:54 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), 98 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 09:01 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 2022 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are

80 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 81 of them

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.