EF2 tornado, Datto to Hickoria, 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

March 14, 2025

Touchdown

11:53 PM CDT (04:53 UTC)

Lifted

12:02 AM CDT (05:02 UTC)

On the ground

9 minutes

Path length

9.9 miles (15.9 km)

Path width

125 yards (114 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$250,000

County

Clay County

Touchdown point

36.321, -90.579

Lift-off point

36.411, -90.442

Record number

2503142253-01

46 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LZK and NWS MEG, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 135 mph.

• Online photo of damage to outbuilding with debris scattered downstream.
• Drove by and multiple power poles and trees down by the plant
• Photo from social media appears to indicate tornado damage. Metal tin material scattered and tops of trees blown down.
• Several outbuildings destroyed

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

An upper low over the Central Plains moved into the Upper Mississippi Valley during the evening hours of Friday, March 14, 2025. Increasing moisture advection ahead of an approaching cold front lifted dewpoints into the low to mid 60s. This coupled with increasing height falls and a mid-level 80 knot jet rotating around the main upper low supported severe thunderstorm development. Large looping hodographs, MLCAPE values over 2000 J/kg, 60 knots of bulk shear, and 0-1 km SRH values between 250 and 350 m2/s2 supported an all hazards threat. Storm mode during the overnight hours was supercellular with large hail, damaging winds and several tornadoes, a few of which were strong (EF2+), mainly across northeast Arkansas, the Missouri Bootheel and northeast Mississippi. ||The main upper low lifted into the western Great Lakes Region by early Saturday morning, March 15, 2025. The cold front stalled just to the west of the Mississippi River. Simultaneously, a neutrally-tilted longwave trough moved across the Southern Plains and pushed a 100 knot mid-level jet into the region. This placed West Tennessee and north Mississippi beneath the left exit region of the jet with widespread lift and diffluence available. As a result, showers and thunderstorms rapidly redeveloped across north Mississippi and parts of West Tennessee Saturday morning. Storms quickly formed into a line that slowly moved east. The line of storms produced damaging winds, large hail and a weak tornado Saturday morning. The airmass ahead of the line became even more favorable for severe storms by Saturday afternoon with MLCAPE values increasing to 1500 J/kg and 0-1km SRH values reaching 300 m2/s2 as a surface low moving along the cold front and backed surface winds across northeast Mississippi. Discrete supercells formed ahead of the line during the afternoon producing a couple of weak tornadoes and damaging winds over parts of northeast Missisisppi. Flash flooding was also common due to the slow moving nature of the system.

This tornado touched down in Independence County and moved northeast across southern Sharp County where it reached a peak strength of EF-3 with peak winds of 165 mph in Cave City. The tornado then tracked across northwest Lawrence County and southeast Randolph County before exiting through the Reyno community and entering Clay County. A power pole was destroyed on County Road 112 and six empty grain bins were destroyed. The tornado weakened as it moved northeast, producing scattered tree damage as it crossed County Roads 110 and 125. A center irrigation pivot was overturned and several power poles were snapped where the tornado crossed Highway 67, approximately one mile west of the Corning Municipal Airport. An outbuilding was damaged near Highway 67, spreading metal debris in the field north of the airport. The damage became very sporadic from this point with only minor tree damage and some siding pulled off an outbuilding. The tornado lifted near the intersection of County Roads 147 and 154. Peak winds in Clay County were estimated at 120 mph.

The tornado developed just east of Knobel, crossing Highway 90 and snapping several power poles. This tornado continued to track northeast, producing minor tree damage south and east of County Road 250. As the tornado approached the Walnut Grove community, it began to widen and intensify. Several outbuildings were destroyed at the intersection of County Road 250 and Highway 135. Eight wooden power poles were snapped along Highway 135. Just to the east of Highway 135, a large metal building structure was destroyed, a steel-reinforced awning was lifted and tossed, and several pieces of heavy farm machinery were overturned. The tornado gradually weakened as it moved northeast across open farmland, producing only sporadic, minor tree damage. A generator and pump were damaged just northwest of Hickoria with the tornado lifting near County Road 245. Peak winds were estimated at 135 mph.

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

35 minutes of warning. NWS MEG issued a tornado warning for this county at 04:18 UTC, 35 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 05:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 00:34 UTC and running to 07:35 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.

Corning (4M9), 13 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Memphis radar (KNQA), 127 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:54 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.