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EF1 tornado in Chicot County, Arkansas

Tornado December 21, 2013 · Chicot County, Arkansas

EF1

Rating

40.8 mi

Whole path

440 yd

Path width

Injuries

$800K

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Chicot County → Desha County → Chicot County → Bolivar County, Mississippi; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 440 yards (0.25 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

A long track tornado touched down along Highway 65 in Chicot County, Arkansas, where numerous power poles were snapped and two eighteen wheelers flipped over causing 2 minor injuries. Damage occurred to several homes and farm buildings and heavy roof damage occurred to the Yellow Bend Port facility. This tornado was initially in Chicot County, moved into Desha County, and then moved back into Chicot County. The tornado then crossed the Mississippi River into Bolivar County, Mississippi. The tornado was rated EF-1 in Chicot County and was given an overall rating of EF-2 due to damage in Mississippi.

In Bolivar County, Mississippi, numerous power poles were snapped. A well built tractor shed was destroyed and several farm buildings were damaged. Maximum wind speeds were estimated at 115 mph, with a total path length of 41 miles through Chicot, Desha, and Bolivar counties.

The wider storm

A squall line took shape across west-central Louisiana early to mid afternoon on the 21st. The squall line gradually moved to the east with some strong storms and embedded supercells developing in the ArkLaMiss Delta. The supercells produced a tornado in the far northwestern portions of the ArkLaMiss Delta. The tornado began in Chicot County, southeast of Dermott, and tracked through Chicot and Desha counties in Arkansas, before dissipating in Bolivar County Mississippi northwest of Cleveland. As the squall line progressed east through the late afternoon and evening multiple trees and power lines were downed across Mississippi. A 64 mph wind gust was recorded at the Cleveland Municipal Airport. The line of storms weakened later in the evening and finally moved out of the region in the early morning hours of December 22nd.

In addition to the damage from the line of storms, strong gradient winds ahead of the storms caused trees and power lines to fall in Adams, Clarke and Jones counties. Winds speeds between 45 and 50 mph were measured ahead of the line of the storms at the Greenville, Greenwood and Meridian airports.

Began near Bellaire (33.5100, -91.3620).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 483368. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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