Tornadoes · United States · Arkansas · 2022
EF1 tornado, Elevenpoint, Arkansas, March 6, 2022
This EF1 tornado ran 2.4 miles across Randolph County on March 6, 2022, touching down at 8:17 PM CST and reaching 150 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $200,000 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.
EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- March 6, 2022
- Touchdown
- 8:17 PM CST (02:17 UTC)
- Lifted
- 8:20 PM CST (02:20 UTC)
- On the ground
- 3 minutes
- Path length
- 2.4 miles (3.8 km)
- Path width
- 150 yards (137 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $200,000
- County
- Randolph County
- Touchdown point
- 36.371, -91.118
- Lift-off point
- 36.398, -91.093
- Record number
- 2203062017-01
The damage survey
3 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.
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
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 southeast of Dalton in Randolph County. Several small outbuildings were destroyed, there were softwood, shallow rooted trees uprooted, and there were chicken coops that were either completely or partially destroyed. The tornado track was determined by geotagged photos.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
18 minutes of warning. NWS LZK issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:59 UTC, 18 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:27 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 02:03 UTC and running to 08:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20:20 UTC | 02:00 UTC | Tornado Watch | LZK |
| 23:30 UTC | 00:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | LZK |
| 01:23 UTC | 02:12 UTC | Tornado Warning | LZK |
| 01:59 UTC | 02:27 UTC | Tornado Warning | LZK |
| 02:03 UTC | 08:00 UTC | Tornado Watch | LZK |
| 05:46 UTC | 06:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | LZK |
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 forecast that day
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 00:39 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 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.
Little Rock, AR (KLZK), 00:00Z
2.3 hours before the tornado, 202 km from the path. March 7, 2022.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 449 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -29 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2568 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1244 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 55 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 27 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 249 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 381 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.7
- Supercell composite
- 16.6
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 7.5 K/km
Little Rock, AR (KLZK), 12:00Z
9.7 hours after it, 202 km from the path. March 7, 2022.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -111064 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 694 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 67 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 34 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -429 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- -177 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 1.8 K/km
The radar
The Memphis radar (KNQA), 160 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:15 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.
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23:28 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Ne Hickoria | Clay, AR | CORRECTS PREVIOUS TORNADO REPORT FROM 2 NE HICKORIA. BRIEF, RAIN-WRAPPED TORNADO SOUTHWEST OF MCDOUGAL. |
| 00:00 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Sse Dalton | Randolph, AR | THIS TORNADO STARTED SOUTHEAST OF DALTON IN RANDOLPH COUNTY. SEVERAL SMALL OUTBUILDINGS WERE DESTROYED, THERE WERE SOFTWOOD, SHALLOW ROOTED TREES UPROOTED, AND THERE WERE CHICKEN COOPS THAT WERE EITHER COMPLETELY OR PART |
| 01:32 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 N Evening Shade | Sharp, AR | TRAINED STORM CHASERS REPORTED POWER FLASHES AND TREE DEBRIS ACROSS HIGHWAY 167 APPROXIMATELY 3 MILES NORTH OF EVENING SHADE, AR. THIS WAS POSSIBLY A TORNADO. |
| 01:36 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 5 N Evening Shade | Sharp, AR | TRAINED STORM SPOTTER REPORT OF 62 MPH WIND GUST WITH TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN AT THE JUNCTION OF HIGHWAY 167 AND BEAR VALLEY ROAD ABOUT 5 MILES NORTH OF EVENING SHADE, AR. |
| 02:05 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Se Dalton | Randolph, AR | SEVERAL POWER POLES KNOCKED DOWN ALONG WITH DAMAGE TO POULTRY HOUSES AND TWO STRUCTURES. |
| 02:17 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Sse Dalton | Randolph, AR | THIS TORNADO STARTED SOUTHEAST OF DALTON IN RANDOLPH COUNTY. SEVERAL SMALL OUTBUILDINGS WERE DESTROYED, THERE WERE SOFTWOOD, SHALLOW ROOTED TREES UPROOTED, AND THERE WERE CHICKEN COOPS THAT WERE EITHER COMPLETELY OR PART |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2022 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of March 6, 2022
9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 6 | 2:05 AM EST | EF0 | Cass, IN | 0.4 | 25 | $15,000 | ||
| March 6 | 4:21 AM EST | EF0 | Darke, OH | 2.9 | 100 | $150,000 | ||
| March 6 | 4:23 AM EST | EF0 | Shelby, OH | 2.5 | 100 | $100,000 | ||
| March 6 | 3:54 PM CST | EF0 | Craighead, AR | 2.5 | 50 | |||
| March 6 | 5:18 PM CST | EF1 | Pope, AR | 15.6 | 600 | $50,000 | ||
| March 6 | 5:28 PM CST | EF0 | Clay, AR | 6.4 | 50 | |||
| March 6 | 5:35 PM CST | EF0 | Butler, MO | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| March 6 | 6:26 PM CST | EF1 | Stone, AR | 2.4 | 200 | $40,000 | ||
| March 6 | 7:17 PM CST | EF2 | Izard, AR | 11.3 | 800 | 5 | $405,000 |
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.