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EF3 tornado in Howard County, Arkansas

Tornado April 9, 2009 · Howard County, Arkansas

EF3

Rating

40.1 mi

Whole path

850 yd

Path width

Injuries

$5.1M

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through McCurtain County, Oklahoma → Sevier County → Howard County → Pike County → Pike County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 850 yards (0.48 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF3 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF3 is severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, consistent with estimated gusts of 136–165 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 into Howard County from Sevier County Arkansas. The Dierks Lake area received significant damage near the Sevier, Howard County line. The Army Corps of Engineers office had significant roof damage to their office building with roofing material found in the trees adjacent to the building. The tornado was strongest in Howard County where the entire second story of a reinforced concrete building was decimated and strewn across the road. This was consistent with EF3 tornado damage with wind speeds of 140 mph. The tornado then moved into Pike County, Arkansas about 3.5 miles southwest of New Hope, Arkansas. The Arkansas governor declared Howard County a disaster area because of the tornado damage.

The wider storm

A strong upper level storm system along with a surface dry line/front

over northeast Texas moved east during the evening hours of April 9th into the early morning hours of April 10th causing long lived supercell thunderstorms. These thunderstorms caused long track tornadoes to occur across southeast Oklahoma, southwest Arkansas, northeast Texas, and north Louisiana.

Began near Dierks (34.1441, -94.0979).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF3 Miller County EF2 Howard County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 154451. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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