EF1 tornado, Wheeling to French, 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 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

May 26, 2024

Touchdown

5:03 AM CDT (10:03 UTC)

Lifted

5:18 AM CDT (10:18 UTC)

On the ground

15 minutes

Path length

10.4 miles (16.7 km)

Path width

500 yards (457 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Fulton County

Touchdown point

36.312, -91.864

Lift-off point

36.356, -91.686

Record number

2405260403-01

15 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.

• There must be over 50 trees down at this intersection. Start of this tornado.
• Trees uprooted on home. End of this tornado based on damage.
• Likely end point based on Sentinel satellite imagery.
• Social media post shows house on Young Road with shingles missing, loss of siding, windows broken in, and concrete foundation damaged.

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 Fulton County tornado began south of Whipporwill Road and|east of Hwy 9, uprooting and snapping numerous trees. The tornado|continued towards Fairview Road where it caused damage to a house|and continued to uproot and snap trees. The tornado then moved|towards the northeast causing damage to a house on Young Road.|The house had some siding and shingles ripped off in addition to|damage to the cinderblock foundation. The tornado continued|towards the intersection of Highway 62 and Squirrel Hill Road,|about 3 to 4 miles southeast of Salem, knocking down power poles|and at least 50 trees. The tornado continued northeast along|Squirrel Hill Road downing numerous trees. One of these trees|fell on a home causing damage to the roof. The tornado continued|to the northeast crossing Deer Bend Trail, River Hill Road, and|Fernwood Road snapping and uprooting more trees. The tornado|lifted just south of French Town Road near the South Fork Spring|River. Tornado path length was increased from high-resolution|satellite imagery, along with additional public reports with|photo evidence. This tornado was rated an EF1 with maximum|estimated winds of 100 mph.

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

27 minutes of warning. NWS LZK issued a tornado warning for this county at 09:36 UTC, 27 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 10:15 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 Enhanced 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.

Melbourne (42A), 30 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), 172 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 10:02 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.