Correction: Arkansas is bordered by six states. This story about the rarity of EF5 tornadoes in the state gave an incorrect number.
An EF5 tornado -- the most violent and rare of twisters -- has hit Arkansas only once, and Lucille Tucker Burkett experienced it.
The storm formed near Batesville on April 10, 1929, and headed late that afternoon toward the Pleasant Valley community in Jackson County, where then-3-year-old Burkett lived with her parents.
"I thought it was smoke from a freight train engine," said Burkett, 89, who now lives at the Woodruff County Health Center in McCrory. "It came from the Black River bottoms. It looked like a big ball of smoke a-coming."
The tornado, with estimated wind speeds topping 200 mph, struck a neighbor's house where Burkett and her family sought shelter.
"It took one room at a time," Burkett said. "We'd run to the next room, and the tornado would take that. Finally, we got to the last room."
She saw a large black stove sail through the room, and then the twister smashed through what was left of the house, lifting family members into the air.
Burkett said a witness saw them hurled 20 feet into the air before they were dropped into a muddy field near the splintered ruins of the home.
Burkett was hurt. Her leg was twisted severely. A tree limb had rammed through her father's cheek and mouth. Her mother's ribs were broken. Her grandmother was killed, along with 28 other people.
Eighty-six years later, the images of the tornado stay with Burkett. As April 10 nears, she remembers them clearly.
"I haven't forgotten it," she said. "I was only 3½ then, but every year on that day since then I think about it."
It's probably the only storm of that size to hit the Natural State, although last year's tornado that killed 16 in Vilonia, Mayflower and El Paso may have reached that classification briefly as it roared through central Arkansas, meteorologists have said.
EF5 tornadoes are scarce across the country -- and even more of a rarity in Arkansas.
Since 1950, when the National Weather Service formed and began tracking tornadoes, there have been only 59 EF5-rated tornadoes in the United States. Each of the seven states that border Arkansas has seen at least one EF5 tornado since 1950.
The April 10, 1929, EF5 twister in Arkansas was an estimation based upon surveys of the damage years later.
The EF scale, or enhanced Fujita, was implemented in 2007, replacing the original Fujita scale created by University of Chicago weather researcher Tetsuya "Ted" Fujita in 1971. The scale rates tornado wind speeds on the basis of the damage caused to structures, trees and other vegetation. The ratings for tornadoes are determined in the days after the storms, allowing researchers time to survey the storms' paths.
Seven of those 59 EF5 twisters listed since 1950 occurred on one day -- April 3, 1974, when an outbreak of severe weather wracked the central United States.
The most recent EF5 tornado recorded was on May 20, 2013, in Moore, Okla.
Monster tornadoes arise only if the "perfect conditions" exist to create them, said Harold Brooks, a research meteorologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Okla.
To form them, there has to be warm, moist air in the lower atmosphere and cold, dry air aloft. Wind sheer has to increase as the altitude increases, and winds must be from the south and west.
"The atmosphere has to work really hard to put all those conditions together," Brooks said.
In states west of Arkansas -- specifically in Oklahoma, where seven EF5 tornadoes have occurred since 1950 -- warm airflow from the Rocky Mountains is a factor in creating them. By the time that air reaches Arkansas, though, it has cooled somewhat, easing the volatility for creating the super cells that spawn the EF5s.
Farther east, in Alabama and Mississippi, that cooled warm air that passes over Arkansas sometimes re-warms, creating another opportunity for the huge tornadoes to form, Brooks said.
There have been seven EF5 tornadoes in Alabama, four in Mississippi and one just across the Alabama border in Tennessee since 1950.
"Arkansas could have EF5s, just like anywhere else," said Ed Calianes,the warning coordinator for the National Weather Service in Tulsa. "There's no rationalization that says they can't form in Arkansas, too.
"There were two tornadoes [in Arkansas] that could have been EF5s," he said, referring to the April 27, 2014, tornado that began south of Vilonia, and the Feb. 5, 2008, twister that cut a 120-mile path from Atkins to Highland. Both were rated EF4, with wind speeds between 166 mph and 200 mph.
"Ten or 15 mph more in wind speed, and they would have been EF5s," he said. "It can happen in Arkansas if the environment supports it. It's not totally out of the realm of reality."
About 98 percent of all tornadoes in the U.S. are rated less than EF4, said National Weather Service research meteorologist Chris Buonanno of North Little Rock.
"It's so rare to see these 'violent' tornadoes to begin with," he said. "We've had our share of damaging tornadoes."
Of the 550 EF4 tornadoes in the U.S. since 1950, Arkansas has recorded 20, he said.
On average, there are about 1,100 tornadoes a year in the nation.
Because some tornadoes form in rural areas where there are no buildings, meteorologists cannot rate their wind speeds because there is no damage. Some towns also have different construction methods, making it harder to determine a tornado's strength, Calianes said.
In Vilonia, where Calianes assisted in storm assessments, homes were swept off their foundations -- a normal indication for EF5 wind speeds topping 200 mph. However, in Mayflower, homes were destroyed, but debris remained on foundations. Calianes later discovered that some of the homes in Vilonia were not bolted to foundations the same way as those in Mayflower and were therefore more easily blown off those foundations.
"It was clear to us that when we found homes that began to fail before wind speeds of 200 miles per hour, we knew it was an EF4," he said.
Anytime ominous clouds begin forming and weather warnings are issued, Burkett still grows nervous, she said.
Burkett moved from Jackson County to Woodruff County a year after the 1929 tornado. The Pleasant Valley community no longer exists, but before her health waned, Burkett traveled yearly with relatives to her family's homestead to visit a memorial for those killed.
"We remember," she said. "We had no warnings and no way of knowing it was coming. All I saw was what I thought was smoke in the distance.
"All I knew then was that it was a cloudy, hot, sultry day. Now, you have time to prepare yourself if another one ever comes."
State Desk on 04/06/2015