EF1 tornado, Center Pt to Shover Spgs, 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 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

March 14, 2025

Touchdown

10:09 PM CDT (03:09 UTC)

Lifted

10:28 PM CDT (03:28 UTC)

On the ground

19 minutes

Path length

8.6 miles (13.8 km)

Path width

525 yards (480 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

2

Property damage

$500,000

County

Hempstead County

Touchdown point

33.524, -93.646

Lift-off point

33.594, -93.523

Record number

2503142109-01

23 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS SHV, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EFU. The highest wind the damage implies is 109 mph.

• Cattle trailer thrown approx. 50 yards east; camper thrown 150 yards northwest
• Planet satellite imagery NDVI analysis reveals the tornado track stretches back to this point for the Nevada County EF2 where a corridor of tree damage becomes apparent. Point entered via the NWS GIS Mutual Aid Team.
• Planet satellite imagery NDVI analysis reveals the tornado track stretches back through this point for the Nevada County EF2 where a corridor of tree damage continues. Point entered via the NWS GIS Mutual Aid Team.

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

Robust thunderstorm development began late in the evening on March 14th along a dryline from the Hot Springs region southward toward Texarkana. Upper air analysis suggested that low to mid-level winds were not quite as strong as compared to areas in Northern Arkansas. However, a strengthening low-level jet sampled by the KLZK (North Little Rock, Arkansas) and KSHV (Shreveport, Louisiana) radars both supported 0-1 km storm relative helicity (SRH) on the order of 200-300 m2/s2. Increasing low-level surface moisture and mixed layer CAPE were supportive of a more tornadic environment downstream of the developing convection. Discrete to semi-discrete supercells migrated into this air mass with damaging wind gusts and tornadoes eventually being reported across parts of Southwest Arkansas late into the evening hours.

An EF1 tornado with estimated maximum winds near 100 mph touched down late in the evening on March 14th, 2025, along County Road 5 near the intersection of County Road 160 and County Road 161 West. Large branches on trees were snapped, along with a few uprooted trees in this area. The tornado then moved slightly northeast, passing just north of County Road 161 West before then crossing Highway 29 South where the tornado continued to produce tree damage along with structural damage to several residences, mainly damage to roofing. As the tornado continued east, it damaged more structures, with a home experiencing roof damage, along with a camper and cattle trailer thrown approximately 100 yards from their original positions. Extensive tree damage was visible to the east from the backyard of the residence, indicating that the tornado continued in this direction, heading toward County Road 150. Off of County Road 150, a mobile home was completely destroyed, injuring the two residents inside. The roof and walls of the mobile home were separated from the undercarriage and moved from the original position. The tornado continued its path to the east northeast, crossing Little Bodcaw Creek before damaging the roof of another residence off of County Road 57. The tornado would persist for another several miles, mainly uprooting trees and snapping branches as it passed near the intersection of County Road 8 and County Road 3, then County Road 134 and County Road 52. The tornado then finally lifted as it approached Highway 32.

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

4 minutes of warning. NWS SHV issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:05 UTC, 4 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 02:47 UTC and running to 07:56 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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. 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.

Texarkana Regional/Webb (TXK), 39 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 126 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:09 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.