EF1 tornado, Wareagle to Rockhouse, 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

2:16 AM CDT (07:16 UTC)

Lifted

2:29 AM CDT (07:29 UTC)

On the ground

13 minutes

Path length

8.9 miles (14.3 km)

Path width

500 yards (457 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$75,000

Counties

Madison and Benton counties

Touchdown point

36.241, -93.903

Lift-off point

36.295, -93.759

Record number

2405260116-01

51 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TSA, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 122 mph.

• No damage found east of road.
• Concentrated high end damage trees snapped, uprooted. Some trees on houses. Power lines hanging.
• Beginning of tree damage associated with large RFD punch along Highway 127 north of Alabam near Forum
• Concentrated damage along 127.

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

Severe thunderstorms developed over western Oklahoma during the afternoon of the 25th, along a sharpening dry line, and moved east across Oklahoma during the evening, and across northwestern Arkansas during the early morning hours of the 26th. The atmosphere east of the dry line across Oklahoma and western Arkansas was moist and very unstable. Wind fields above the ground and deep layer wind shear strengthened during the afternoon through the early morning hours of the 26th, as an upper level disturbance translated into the Southern Plains. Additionally, low level wind shear increased late in the evening and continued very strong into the early morning hours of the 26th. These conditions were very supportive for the development of supercell thunderstorms. One of these supercells became particularly intense and long-tracked as it moved across northeastern Oklahoma and northwestern Arkansas, producing multiple tornadoes, several of which were strong. Large hail to baseball size and swaths of damaging straight-line wind also occurred, resulting in considerable damage.

This tornado began approximately one mile south of War Eagle along County Road 303, where numerous trees were uprooted, with some large trunks snapped. The tornado moved northeast where it crossed Highway 12, damaging a mobile home, downing power lines and snapping and uprooting trees. The tornado then crossed Highway 127 where it uprooted trees onto homes, knocked down power lines, and snapped large trunks before dissipating. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in the tornado was 100 to 110 mph.

This is the first segment of a two-segment tornado. This tornado began in southeast Benton County near Highway 12, where it uprooted and snapped trees as it moved northeast toward the Benton/Madison County line. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in this segment of the tornado was 100 to 110 mph. The tornado continued into Madison County.

This is the second segment of a two-segment tornado. The tornado moved northeast into northern Madison County, crossing County Road 8315, where numerous trees were uprooted and snapped. The tornado continued northeast crossing Highway 127 north of Clifty, where it damaged outbuildings, downed power lines, uprooted trees and snapped some large trunks. The tornado crossed Highway 23 south of the Carroll County line, where it further uprooted trees before dissipating just east of the highway. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in this segment of the tornado was 100 to 110 mph.

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

12 minutes of warning. NWS TSA issued a tornado warning for this county at 07:04 UTC, 12 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 07:33 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 02:05 UTC and running to 10:00 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 0.02 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), 114 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:18 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.