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EF2 tornado in St. Francis County, Arkansas

Tornado December 21, 2013 · St. Francis County, Arkansas

EF2
Rating
15.6 mi
Path length
300 yd
Path width
1
Death
3
Injuries
$500K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 300 yards (0.17 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 six miles west-southwest of Hughes and traveled north-northeast. Three mobile homes were destroyed near Hughes. Roof damage occurred to two homes and a barn was damaged. A number of irrigation pivots were overturned. Near the community of Wildwood a metal shed was destroyed. Power lines were also damaged along the path. The tornado lifted one mile northwest of Tarsus. The peak winds were estimated at 130 mph.

The wider storm

Heavy rain developed along a stalled front across Northeast Arkansas early in the day causing flash flooding. As the day progressed a potent upper level disturbance moved out of the East Texas while a surface low pressure system tracked from Arkansas along the stalled front. Moist and unstable air moved into the Mid-South in advance of the stalled front and the developing low pressure system. As a result a few severe storms developed across parts of East-Central Arkansas during the late afternoon and early evening of December 21st. These storms produced flash flooding, damaging winds and a tornado.

Began near Rawlison (34.9070, -90.5590).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 484464. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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