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(Van Buren County) and Atkins (Pope County) were among those suffering severe damage, while a second, shorter tornado devastated the town of Gassville (Baxter County).
Other large outbreaks in the twenty-first century occurred on December 18, 2002, May 16, 2003, and November 27, 2005.
And while hurricanes usually bring only heavy rain to the state, on September 24, 2005, the remnants of Hurricane Rita spawned 17 tornadoes that moved from southeast to northwest— an unusual state of affairs. While the average Arkansas tornado is on the ground less than a mile, tornadoes in this outbreak reached path lengths of 67 and 75 miles, with others of over 20 miles.
The state’s fatality rates are also far higher than expected for a state with relatively low population density. From 1950 to 2006, the state ranked fourteenth in both number of tornadoes (1,407) and tornadoes per 1,000 square miles (26.6); it ranked second in the number of fatalities per 100,000 people (13.9), behind Mississippi (19.2). Counts from the Storm Prediction Center may not tell the entire Arkansas tornado story.
Many researchers consider this tornado count far lower than the actual number due to Arkansas’s rural nature (low population densities) and conditions that make seeing and counting tornadoes difficult (hills, trees, and low cloud decks). If the number of tornadoes counted in more populated areas of the state were extrapolated across the entire area, Arkansas would likely be depicted on maps along with the more well-known Tornado Alley states. However, this method would not take into account local variations in topography that might account for increased or decreased tornado numbers.
Interestingly, some of the same conditions that make counting difficult may also explain Arkansas’s relatively high fatality counts – geography or obstructions might prevent one seeing, and thus seeking shelter from, a tornado. Socioeconomic status may also play a role, especially in the past: lower incomes result in more manufactured homes or less sturdy housing stock, and lower overall educational level can affect understanding of climate cues or warnings.
There are also fewer sturdy shelters, such as basements, in Arkansas. These indicators have steadily been improving in the state over the fifty-six-year period for which tornadoes are assessed here, but they are still counted by researchers as factors that increase vulnerability.
Destruction from the April 27, 2014, tornado in the Parkwood Meadows neighborhood in Vilonia, in Faulkner County.
Photo courtesy of AECH Continued from page 5
While April suffers the most tornadoes on average (291), late fall and winter tornadoes are not at all uncommon in Arkansas. The state also suffers many night tornadoes, in part due to early sunsets during the winter; this factor could also contribute to the state’s fatality rate. Tornadoes in Arkansas occur primarily between the hours of 5:00 and 6:00 p.m.
Tornado intensity has traditionally been measured according to the Fujita Scale (F-scale), which was based on damage to structures. It ranges from F0 (weak) to F5 (extreme). While this method is not a good measure of intensity, in that strong tornadoes may not hit a structure and variability in structure strength can produce wide variances in damage, it was, until the recent development of the Enhanced Fujita Scale, the only measure. As is the case across the country, the average Arkansas tornado since 1950 is very weak (F1.25); there has been only one recorded F5 tornado in the state, on April 10, 1929. Of the 336 fatalities in the state that occurred between 1950 and 2006, 211 took place in F4 tornadoes, of which there were only forty; only two fatalities took place in F0 and F1 tornadoes combined (962 total).
Death tolls since the advent of Weather Service tornado warnings in 1952 have been plummeting nationwide. In Arkansas, rates have generally declined (from sixty-eight fatalities per 100 tornadoes in the 1950s to only 6.3 fatalities per 100 tornadoes) but remain too high.
As a comparison, Kansas saw about twenty fatalities per 100 tornadoes in the 1950s and only about two fatalities per 100 tornadoes in the 2000s. Each recent tornado, however, has brought about large expenditures for community sirens, and more recently, Arkansas Department of Emergency Management (ADEM) monetary incentives to build tornado-proof safe rooms in homes. ADEM has also been key in supplying and stressing to the public the need for warningactivated National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) weather radios, while also vastly increasing weather radio coverage to rural areas using new transmitters.
The March 21, 1952 tornado that leveled most of Judsonia (pictured) and Bald Knob is considered the deadliest tornado in Arkansas history. However, the most powerful tornado ever recorded in the state was an EF5 tornado that struck Jackson County on April 10, 1929. To date, it is the only confirmed EF5 tornado ever recorded in Arkansas.
Photo courtesy of the Parker Family
