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EF1 tornado in Miller County, Arkansas

Tornado December 23, 2009 · Miller County, Arkansas

EF1

Rating

4.8 mi

Whole path

150 yd

Path width

$100

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Cass County, Texas → Miller County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 150 yards (0.09 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

This tornado was a continuation of the tornado that first touched down in Cass County, Texas. Tornado damage consisted of numerous trees downed with minor roof damage to one house.

The wider storm

A strong upper level storm system moved its way out of the southern Great Basin and into the Southern Plains during the afternoon hours of December 23rd. Strong southerly flow was found ahead of this storm system with dewpoint temperatures in the lower to middle 60s noted northward to the Interstate 20 corridor of northeast Texas and northern Louisiana. Impressive deep layer shear was noted in the warm sector across the region which was conducive for discrete storm cells during the afternoon and evening across northeast Texas. These storms spawned tornadoes and produced large hail across portions of northeast Texas. The storm system moved eastward during the predawn hours of December 24th with again, numerous storms producing tornadoes across southern Arkansas and northern Louisiana. In addition to all the storm damage...these storms were prolific rain makers with numerous reports of flash flooding across the region as well.

Began near Ravanna (33.0643, -94.0431).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 202996. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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