EF1 tornado in Polk County, Arkansas
Tornado April 9, 2009 · Polk County, Arkansas
NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Le Flore County, Oklahoma → Polk County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.
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 the National Weather Service wrote
A tornado moved out of Le Flore County, Oklahoma, and entered Polk County, Arkansas, just north of where Oklahoma Highway 63 becomes Arkansas Highway 8 at the state line. A vacation home was destroyed and a 5th-wheel camping trailer was overturned. Hundreds of trees were knocked down in the Ouachita National Forest. Much of the track of the tornado through the forest was inaccessible by road, so aerial imagery from a flyover by the USDA Forest Service was used to determine this portion of the track.
The wider storm
Low pressure aloft approached from the west and collided with moisture and instability. Thunderstorms developed in eastern Oklahoma during the afternoon, then became more numerous as they entered western Arkansas during the evening. The storms brought a few tornadoes and numerous hailstorms to Arkansas during the evening hours.
Began near Mountain Fork (34.6471, -94.4573).
Other tornadoes from the same storm system
2 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 154301. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.
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