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.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

    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. 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)ExpiredProductOffice
20:55 UTC21:15 UTCTornado WarningLZK

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.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 2025-06-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 8 joules per kilogram, CIN -168, lifted condensation level 1046 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 2025-06-12The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 60 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 20 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
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

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Little Rock, AR (KLZK), 00:00Z

3.1 hours after it, 198 km from the path. June 13, 2025.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 2025-06-13Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 118 joules per kilogram, CIN -87, lifted condensation level 763 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 2025-06-13The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 10 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 26 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
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

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
20:55 UTCTORNADO2 Ne Little Rock AfbPulaski, ARCorrects 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 UTCTORNADO3 S Prairie CenterPrairie, ARThis 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.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 121:02 AM CDTEF0Hays, TX1.450$10,000
June 121:06 AM CDTEF0Hays, TX0.675
June 123:05 AM CDTEF0Wharton, TX2.150
June 123:20 AM CDTEF1Wharton, TX1.6130$200,000
June 127:39 AM CDTEF0Live Oak, TX0.650
June 122:50 PM MDTEF1Laramie, WY2.210
June 124:30 PM CDTUnratedPrairie, AR0.420

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.