Unrated tornado, Henslee Hgts, Arkansas, May 10, 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 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. Unratedthis tornado

   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

Unrated

Date

May 10, 2023

Touchdown

1:05 PM CDT (18:05 UTC)

Path length

0.1 miles (0.2 km)

Path width

25 yards (23 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Jefferson County

Touchdown point

34.310, -91.970

Lift-off point

34.310, -91.970

Record number

2305101205-01

A ridge of high pressure over the middle of the country provided days of dry weather, and monthly rainfall deficits exceeded two inches at Little Rock (Pulaski County). A lifting warm front that retreated back into the far northeastern part of Arkansas as a stationary front brought several, afternoon rounds of pulse severe thunderstorms with hail and damaging winds to the area, including a brief tornado.

An extremely brief tornado developed near the intersection of Arkansas highway 79 and 31 north of Pine Bluff, AR. Video footage showed tornado only lasting 30 seconds with swirling dirt and dust in an open field. No EF rating was attainable and there was no damage to survey.

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

NWS Little Rock, AR wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at May 10, 6:32 AM CDT, 6 hours 33 minutes earlier.

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Pine Bluff/Grider (PBF), 15 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Little Rock radar (KLZK), 64 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:03 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.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2023 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are

7 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.