EF2 Tornado — Arkansas, Arkansas

2009-07-30 · near Arkansas Post, Arkansas, Arkansas

Event narrative

A tornado began in southeastern Arkansas County, northeast of Arkansas Post. Initially, the tornado was weak and its track was mostly over open farm land. The porch of an old mobile home, being used as a hunting camp, was torn off. The tornado soon moved into the White River National Wildlife Refuge and intensified greatly. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimated that 1750 acres of timber were destroyed within the refuge. Most of these old-growth trees were snapped off. Three families were camping at Jacks Bay in the refuge. No one was injured, but the campers were unable to exit the refuge because Jacks Bay Road, the only road out of that section of the refuge, was blocked by fallen trees. It took several hours for county, state, and federal crews to reopen the road. Altogether, they had to cut trees off 2537 feet of roadway. A few of the falling trees knocked down power lines. The tornado crossed the White River, into Phillips County, east-northeast of Weber.

This tornado was destined to be one for the record books. The total path length in Arkansas and Phillips counties was by far the longest tornado track ever recorded in Arkansas during the month of July. Also, it was only the eighth tornado in Arkansas history to achieve a rating of F2/EF2 in the month of July.

Wider weather episode

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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (34.0628, -91.2735)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 178573. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.