Tornadoes · United States · Arkansas · 2025
EF0 tornado, (Lrf)Little Rock Afb to Warsaw, Arkansas, June 12, 2025
From (Lrf)Little Rock Afb to Warsaw, this EF0 tornado ran 2.3 miles across Pulaski County on June 12, 2025, touching down at 3:53 PM CDT and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody.
The rating scale
Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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.
The record
- Rating
- EF0
- Date
- June 12, 2025
- Touchdown
- 3:53 PM CDT (20:53 UTC)
- Lifted
- 3:57 PM CDT (20:57 UTC)
- On the ground
- 4 minutes
- Path length
- 2.3 miles (3.6 km)
- Path width
- 75 yards (69 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Pulaski County
- Touchdown point
- 34.929, -92.132
- Lift-off point
- 34.956, -92.108
- Record number
- 2506121453-01
The damage survey
8 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LZK, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.
- Limbs snapped off blew down to the west, about 90-130 deg west of storm motion.
- Limbs blew down to the northwest, west of storm motion.
- Limbs blew down west of storm motion.
- Likely tornado end point. No further storm damage was noted northeast of this location.
Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.
What the Weather Service recorded
A stationary front across the Mid-West portion of the CONUS led to a ample warm sector with plenty of moisture and warm air streaming into the Natural State which led to multiple days of severe weather which included tornadoes, wind damage, and several instances of flash flooding across the state as Arkansas saw several days of moderate to heavy rainfall.
This weak tornado formed just south of Maddox Road, just to the north of the Little Rock Air Force Base, knocking down several large limbs to the west. This tornado continued northeast towards the intersection of McKenzie Road and West Republican Road, knocking down several more limbs. The tornado lifted just north of Peters Road where more limbs were blown down. This tornado was rated EF0, with maximum estimated winds of 85 mph.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20:55 UTC | 21:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | LZK |
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 forecast that day
The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:52 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 air that afternoon
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.
Little Rock, AR (KLZK), 12:00Z
8.9 hours before the tornado, 198 km from the path. June 12, 2025.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 8 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -168 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 304 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1046 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 20 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 8 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 60 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 75 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.4 K/km
Little Rock, AR (KLZK), 00:00Z
3.1 hours after it, 198 km from the path. June 13, 2025.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 118 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -87 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 279 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 763 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 26 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 15 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 10 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 35 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.3
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.0 K/km
The radar
The Little Rock radar (KLZK), 18 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:51 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.
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20:55 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Ne Little Rock Afb | Pulaski, AR | Corrects previous tornado report from 2 NE Little Rock AFB. Preliminary storm survey finds an EF0 tornado occurred just north of the Little Rock Air Force Base, near West Maddox and West Republican Roads. Additional deta |
| 21:30 UTC | TORNADO | 3 S Prairie Center | Prairie, AR | This is a delayed report. Video footage shows a brief tornado occurring at this location. No damage occurred, the tornado is rated EFU. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2025 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of June 12, 2025
7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 12 | 1:02 AM CDT | EF0 | Hays, TX | 1.4 | 50 | $10,000 | ||
| June 12 | 1:06 AM CDT | EF0 | Hays, TX | 0.6 | 75 | |||
| June 12 | 3:05 AM CDT | EF0 | Wharton, TX | 2.1 | 50 | |||
| June 12 | 3:20 AM CDT | EF1 | Wharton, TX | 1.6 | 130 | $200,000 | ||
| June 12 | 7:39 AM CDT | EF0 | Live Oak, TX | 0.6 | 50 | |||
| June 12 | 2:50 PM MDT | EF1 | Laramie, WY | 2.2 | 10 | |||
| June 12 | 4:30 PM CDT | Unrated | Prairie, AR | 0.4 | 20 |
What this means
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.
Sources
NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.