EF1 tornado — Grant County, Arkansas

EF1 tornado in Grant County, Arkansas

Tornado October 29, 2009 · Grant County, Arkansas

EF1

Rating

1.6 mi

Path length

200 yd

Path width

$150K

Damage as recorded

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 200 yards (0.11 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

The tornado blew down or snapped off thousands of trees on private timber lands.

The wider storm

A large storm system in the Rockies headed through the Plains into the upper Midwest on the 29th. Rain increased ahead of the system, and became widespread in Arkansas. Meanwhile, a cold front arrived from the west. Because the system was so far to the north, it did not give the front much push. The front slowed down, which prolonged the rain. The result was widespread flash flooding, which gave way to areal flooding and river flooding. Winds changed direction and speed up through the atmosphere, a favorable condition for tornadoes. However, instability was sufficient only in southern Arkansas for the development of tornadoes.

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 196848. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

EF1 tornado in Grant County, Arkansas

What the National Weather Service wrote

The wider storm

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

Tornadoes near your address