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EF2 tornado in Phillips County, Arkansas

Tornado July 30, 2009 · Phillips County, Arkansas

EF2
Rating
33.4 mi
Whole path
600 yd
Path width
$5.1M
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Arkansas County → Phillips County → Coahoma County, Mississippi → Phillips County → Coahoma County, Mississippi → Phillips County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 600 yards (0.34 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

A tornado touched down in Arkansas County roughly 5 miles south of Tichnor. The tornado moved northeast crossing into Phillips County. The tornado knocked down around one thousand trees in the White River National Wildlife Refuge. From there, the tornado traveled northeast on a continuous path producing damage near Lundell. The Phillips County Airport sustained damage to several buildings. One brick building had major roof damage while another building was completely destroyed. An airport hangar was damaged as well. Several airplanes received damage. Another building sustained minor damage. Several trees were snapped off and many power lines were knocked down in the area. The tornado continued northeast crossing into Coahoma County, Mississippi near Jackson Point.

The wider storm

A cold front approached the Mid-South during the afternoon hours of July 30th, 2009. A low pressure center developed along the front as the front moved into the area. The low pressure helped to spawn several tornadoes across the Mid-South. In addition, other storms produced damaging winds, large hail and flash flooding into the evening hours.

Began near Crumrod (34.1537, -91.0892).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

1 more tornado the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 190637. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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