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EF2 tornado in Lonoke County, Arkansas

Tornado April 15, 2011 · Lonoke County, Arkansas

EF2
Rating
13.8 mi
Whole path
200 yd
Path width
1
Injury
$20.5M
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Pulaski County → Lonoke County → Lonoke County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

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 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 destroyed 51 large steel power transmission towers. These towers carried 500 kilovolt transmission lines. For the most part, the towers fell into open farm fields, but one fell into a pond on a fish farm. The power cables that fell with the towers blocked a number of roads, including Arkansas Highway 31. Power poles, power lines, and trees were blown down as well.

The wider storm

A cold front and strong area of low pressure aloft approached Arkansas on the 14th. The result was an outbreak of severe weather from the evening of the 14th through the pre-dawn hours of the 15th. Several tornadoes occurred. Additionally, storms developed into line segments which often bowed out, creating damaging thunderstorm winds.

Began near Pettus (34.6494, -91.9650).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 289563. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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