EF1 tornado, Augsburg to Retta, Arkansas, March 6, 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 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

March 6, 2022

Touchdown

5:18 PM CST (23:18 UTC)

Lifted

5:39 PM CST (23:39 UTC)

On the ground

21 minutes

Path length

15.6 miles (25.1 km)

Path width

600 yards (549 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

County

Pope County

Touchdown point

35.430, -93.230

Lift-off point

35.530, -92.981

Record number

2203061718-01

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

• Roof damage to a well constructed house with some decking removed along with shingles. Downed trees in the immediate vicinity.
• Minor damage to well constructed home with numerous trees uprooted or snapped in the vicinity.
• Large tree uprooted, falling on a home.
• Numerous pine trees uprooted.

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

At the surface, a front was oriented from southwest to northeast across the state which would help focus the severe weather threat across northern Arkansas. As the upper level storm system moved closer to the area, severe storms developed during the afternoon of March 6th through the morning of the 7th. One main supercell thunderstorm travelled from southeast Johnson County to Randolph County and was responsible for multiple tornadoes through the evening of March 6th. Some additional storms produced mainly weak tornadoes that evening into the early morning hours of the 7th.

This tornado started in west central Pope county, just northeast of Augsburg and tracked northeast for approximately 16 miles, before dissipating in central Pope county. Mostly tree damage was noted. There was some structural damage, with the worst damage to a home 1.1 miles west-northwest of Pleasant Valley with extensive roof damage. The sliding doors, three of them, on a volunteer fire department were also blown in about 0.8 mile north of Pleasant Valley along Highway 7.

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

15 minutes of warning. NWS LZK issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:03 UTC, 15 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:20 UTC and running to 02:00 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:48 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 Little Rock radar (KLZK), 105 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:20 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

9 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.