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EF2 tornado in Lonoke County, Arkansas

Tornado March 31, 2023 · Lonoke County, Arkansas

EF2

Rating

34.2 mi

Whole path

800 yd

Path width

Death

Injuries

$90.0M

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Pulaski County → Lonoke County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 800 yards (0.45 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

This tornado continued from Pulaski County into Lonoke County

within Holland Bottoms State Wildlife Area west of Kerr Station Road. Many trees

were snapped or uprooted in this wildlife area.

The tornado exited the wildlife area into the Parnell community, with more

roofs damaged and some garages destroyed along Oliver Lane. The

tornado crossed Arkansas Highway 89 near Russell Road, destroying a

mobile home. The tornado continued into some more rural areas of

southeast Cabot, with some damage to a few homes and several more

trees uprooted or snapped. The tornado finally lifted between

Arkansas Highway 321 and Campground Road west of Laser Lane. This tornado was rated an EF2 with maximum estimated winds of 132 mph within Lonoke County. This tornado tracked for a total distance of 34.2 miles across two counties.

The wider storm

A powerful storm system and associated upper trough propagated across the Central Plains into the the Mid-Mississippi Valley. Showers and thunderstorms developed in response to the passing trough triggering strong to severe thunderstorms across Arkansas.

Began near South Bend (34.8800, -92.0700).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

2 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF2 Stone County EF1 Prairie County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1089120. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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