EF2 tornado, Wilmington Lndg to Mc Glendon Mill, Arkansas, June 18, 2023

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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

June 18, 2023

Touchdown

8:15 PM CDT (01:15 UTC)

Lifted

8:42 PM CDT (01:42 UTC)

On the ground

27 minutes

Path length

10.3 miles (16.6 km)

Path width

1,320 yards (1207 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$2.0 million

County

Union County

Touchdown point

33.260, -92.448

Lift-off point

33.208, -92.281

Record number

2306181915-01

35 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS SHV, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 115 mph.

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

Areas of deep convection began to develop late in the afternoon through the evening of June 17th and into the early morning hours of June 18th from Southeast Oklahoma to the Ark-La-Tex region. A stationary front was draped from west-northwest to east-southeast through the region, with temperatures generally in the mid to upper 90s and dew points around 80 degrees. These conditions contributed to extreme instability with around 5500-6000 J/kg. As a result, very vigorous updraft development occurred over the next several hours, eventually maturing into some supercell structures given the 45-55 knots of bulk shear. The threat for damaging wind gusts quickly materialized with numerous reports of damaging wind gusts across Southwest Arkansas along with an isolated tornado in Union County later that evening.

During the evening hours on Sunday, June 18th, a strong thunderstorm developed about 12 miles to the northeast of El Dorado, Arkansas in Union County. Shortly after forming, the storm became severe and started to rotate. The storm went on to produce an EF-2 tornado, touching down near the Cypress Creek Oil Field to the north of Moro Bay Highway near Stowe Ditch Road. At this location, there were numerous trees either snapped or uprooted from winds around 80 to 85 mph. As the tornado tracked to the southeast towards Moro Bay Highway, it strengthened some which was evident from the more widespread tree damage. As it crossed Moro Bay Highway, it did not cause any major damage to structures despite there being some along the path. From there,|the road network became sparse, but some additional tree damage was observed along Feldmann Road to the southeast of Moro Bay Highway. ||From there, the tornado continued to track southeast, causing significant damage along Pigeon Hill Road. The tornado continued to strengthen as it moved toward New London Road. This is where the greatest destruction was observed as the tornado moved over|a chicken farm and five chicken coops. Three of the five chicken coops were completely destroyed with additional damage to a few other barns and outbuildings. With the amount of tree damage surrounding the chicken coops, along with the total destruction of three of them, the tornado was rated EF-2 with maximum winds at 115 mph. This damage was short-lived and confined to this farm on the west and east side of New London Road. Additionally, there was a tree that fell on a manufactured home just to the north of the farm. The owners of the farm who lived in a brick home were able to call the family in the manufactured home after getting the tornado warning and had them rush to their house. So no one was in the the manufactured home when it took on damage. From there, the tornado continued to track to the southeast with more significant tree damage off Christian Road and North Road to the north of Phelps Road before lifting.

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

25 minutes of warning. NWS SHV issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:50 UTC, 25 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:30 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 00:45 UTC and running to 03:30 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:09 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 Shreveport radar (KSHV), 163 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:16 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 2023 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are

20 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.