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EF2 tornado in Washington County, Arkansas

Tornado May 7, 2024 · Washington County, Arkansas

EF2
Rating
11.7 mi
Whole path
800 yd
Path width
$75K
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Adair County, Oklahoma → Washington 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 is the second segment of a two-segment tornado. The tornado moved into Washington County just north of the Washington/Crawford County line, and moved east-northeast. Numerous trees were snapped and uprooted, and outbuildings were destroyed as it crossed Highway 59, Dobbs Mountain Road, and Odell Road. The tornado dissipated east of Odell Road. A tornadic debris signature was detected by the KSRX WSR-88D with this tornado. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in this segment of the tornado was 110 to 120 mph.

The wider storm

Severe thunderstorms developed over western Oklahoma during the afternoon of the 6th, as a dry line sharpened over the area. These storms developed eastward across central and eastern Oklahoma during the late afternoon through evening hours, and evolved into a squall line before moving through northwestern Arkansas during the early morning hours of the 7th. The combination of strong instability ahead of the line of thunderstorms, and very strong deep-layer and low-level wind shear resulted in several tornadoes developing as the thunderstorm line moved through the area. One of the tornadoes became strong as it moved across portions of Washington County. Damaging wind gusts and large hail to quarter size also occurred with the squall line.

Began near Evansville (35.7600, -94.4930).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1184280. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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