EF2 tornado, Buffalo to Sycamore Spring, Arkansas, May 26, 2024

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

May 26, 2024

Touchdown

4:26 AM CDT (09:26 UTC)

Lifted

4:36 AM CDT (09:36 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

5.3 miles (8.5 km)

Path width

400 yards (366 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Baxter County

Touchdown point

36.252, -92.326

Lift-off point

36.299, -92.250

Record number

2405260326-01

129 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LZK, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 140 mph.

• Mostly tree damage and some small buildings missing tin panels in this neighborhood
• Several trees uprooted and a few on homes along highway 5
• Several trees snapped and or snubbed at a roadside trailer park. Three fifth wheel trailers were rolled and destroyed.
• A small cabin, likely with poor construction, only missing portion of roof, other surrounding cabins did not have much damage

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

A couple long-tracked supercells moved across the northern two to three rows of counties during the predawn hours of the Memorial Day weekend. These storms triggered numerous tornadoes, some of which strong and long-lived, in addition to widespread straight-line wind damage.

The Briarcliff Tornado continued in Baxter County from Marion County and|moved through a small residential area along the White River,|pulling siding and shingles off houses in addition to causing|significant tree damage. The tornado continued eastward, further|expanding in width, and reached a maximum width of up to 1 mile|wide, crossing mostly rural areas and causing significant tree|damage, passing across Wild Hog Mountain, and crossing Shipps|Ferry Road and Round Rock Trail. As it approached the Arkana and|Norfork Village area, the path width contracted slightly, and|large swaths of trees were found uprooted and snapped as it|crossed the White River briefly once again north of Hwy 341 at|Riverside Dr. The tornado continued northeast towards Briarcliff,|where mostly tree damage was observed to the west of Highway 5.|As the tornado crossed the highway, widespread tree damage became|prevalent, with most trees snapped at their trunks. A few|structures were severely damaged, including a home, and a metal|shop building. The tornado also impacted a local RV/trailer|camping park, where five fifth-wheel recreation trailers were|tossed and completely destroyed. One fatality was reported out of|this area as well. The tornado also moved over a 350 kV|transmission line that intersected Hwy 5, snapping several wooden|two-poled line towers, and bending two steel two-poled line|towers to the ground, indicative of EF2 wind speeds. After|crossing Hwy 5, the tornado moved into the Briarcliff residential|area, encountering significant topography. 17 injuries were|reported within the Briarcliff community. The tornado path width|expanded again, reaching a width of up to 1 mile wide for a short|duration as it moved through Briarcliff. Significant tree damage|was observed over a large portion of the roads in the area, and|via satellite imagery. A few homes sustained moderate damage,|likely exacerbated by debris and projectiles. The Briarcliff City|Hall building, which sat on top of a hill on Scenic Drive,|sustained significant structural damage, with most of the second|level of the building destroyed, indicative of EF3 wind speeds of|up to 140 mph. The tornado then continued to move northeast,|moving over several hills on the east side of Briarcliff. A two-|story home located off of the Shoal Creek tributary sustained|significant roof damage with most of the structure pulled off to|the wall plates, and all the surrounding trees to the east|uprooted from the road to the waterline. The tornado then crossed|the lake, and struck a few peninsulas, where more significant|tree damage was observed. After crossing Norfork Lake, the|tornado continued northeast on the north side of the lake, moving|over mostly rural areas, eventually crossing over the Holiday|Hills Resort Area on Baxter County Road 149. A few buildings|sustained minor roof damage, and a smaller cabin building had the|roof structure pulled off with a few exterior walls collapsed.|Most trees around the resort were uprooted as well. The tornado|then kept moving northeast into Fulton County.

The Sycamore Heights Tornado developed near the end of Fallen Timber Lane west of|Baxter County Road 69, moving east crossing this County Road|69 south of Maple Hollow Road. Several trees were either snapped|or uprooted along this section of the path, but some light|structural damage was noted as it crossed County Road 69, along|with blowing down a fence. As the tornado crossed Morton Creed,|it turned towards the north then crossed Unger Trail, causing|more tree damage and some minor structural damage. It was near|this area where this tornado came in very close proximity to an|adjacent, much larger tornado (Briarcliff Tornado) just to the|southeast near Arkansas Highway 5. This tornado started to move|just north of the southern tornado as it crossed Highway 5,|ripping a roof off a home consistent with EF-2 damage. Lifting|further north, the tornado cross over some neighborhoods east of|Arkansas Highway 5 in northwest portions of Briarcliff, causing|mainly tree damage and some minor structural damage. At this|point, the tornado began moving in a more northeast direction|towards Sycamore Heights, then eventually lifting in the Sycamore|Spring neighborhood. The damage along the rest of this track was|primarily uprooted or snapped trees. This additional tornado was|confirmed from satellite and high resolution areal imagery, also|showing a distinction from the much larger Briarcliff named|tornado just to the south. This tornado was rated an EF2 with|maximum estimated winds of 115 mph.

The deaths

1 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

32 minutes of warning. NWS LZK issued a tornado warning for this county at 08:54 UTC, 32 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 09:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 07:35 UTC and running to 11:44 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 06:00 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 Springfield radar (KSGF), 146 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 09:26 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 2024 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are

69 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 70 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.