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EF1 tornado in Dallas County, Arkansas

Tornado July 30, 2009 · Dallas County, Arkansas

EF1

Rating

2.3 mi

Path length

250 yd

Path width

$15K

Damage as recorded

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 250 yards (0.14 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 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

Dozens of trees were snapped off or blown down. A few of the falling trees knocked down power lines. No damage to structures was found. The majority of the tree damage was in areas close to Arkansas Highway 9.

The wider storm

During the morning of the 30th, a large cluster of thunderstorms known as a Mesoscale Convective System (MCS) moved into Arkansas from the southwest. The MCS weakened, leaving behind a Mesoscale Convective Vortex (MCV) or small area of circulation aloft. During the afternoon, this MCV helped to trigger new storms and a few tornadoes.

Began near Mt Olive (33.8775, -92.6651).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF2 Arkansas County EF0 Lincoln County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 178569. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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