EF3 tornado, Dawt to Fanchon, Arkansas, March 14, 2025

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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3

Date

March 14, 2025

Touchdown

8:34 PM CDT (01:34 UTC)

Lifted

9:16 PM CDT (02:16 UTC)

On the ground

42 minutes

Path length

35.5 miles (57.2 km)

Path width

1,200 yards (1097 m)

Deaths

3

Injuries

4

Property damage

$7.0 million

Counties

Baxter, Ozark and Howell counties

Touchdown point

36.455, -92.236

Lift-off point

36.756, -91.717

Record number

2503141934-01

69 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LZK and NWS SGF, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 145 mph.

• Uprooted trees depicted by satellite.
• Many trees uprooted via satellite data.
• Also entire groves of trees uprooted and some snapped
• Several cars thrown 30-100 yards

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

Severe thunderstorms occurred during the late afternoon and evening hours of March 14th. Seven tornadoes occurred east of Springfield including an EF-3 tornado in Bakersfield, Missouri. Large hail to the golfballs and damaging winds also occurred with these storms.

This is the continued path of the tornado that came out of Baxter County Arkansas. An EF-3 tornado with peak winds of 145 mph moved through Bakersfield, Missouri resulting in three fatalities and four injuries. In Ozark County, the tornado destroyed several homes and damaged dozens of other homes. Multiple cars were rolled 50 to 100 yards. Numerous trees were also uprooted including entire groves of trees destroyed. This tornado then moved northeast into Howell County.

This is a continuation of the EF-3 tornado from Ozark County. This tornado traveled into southwest Howell County and continued to the northeast and passed just south of South Fork before causing damage along the portion of Highway 63 that turns southeast as it exits West Plains. The tornado finally lifted along Highway 160 seven miles east of West Plains. In Howell County, the tornado damaged numerous homes and uprooted numerous trees.

The deaths

3 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.

23 minutes of warning. NWS LZK issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:11 UTC, 23 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:04 UTC and running to 02:50 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 01:01 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), 145 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:35 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 2025 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are

53 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.