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F3 tornado in Union County, Arkansas

Tornado January 12, 2005 · Union County, Arkansas

F3
Rating
24.0 mi
Path length
900 yd
Path width
2
Deaths
13
Injuries
$3.0M
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 900 yards (0.51 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What F3 means. This tornado was rated on Fujita’s original scale, used until 2007. F3 meant severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned; the scale paired it with winds of 158–206 mph, figures later judged too high, especially toward the top of the scale, and revised downward in the Enhanced Fujita scale. Ratings then, as now, came from the damage.

What the National Weather Service wrote

The tornado that moved through Claiborne Parish Louisiana moved northeast into Union County Arkansas. The tornado first struck the community of Junction City, Arkansas just north of the Arkansas, Louisiana state line. From the area surveyed, the tornado was on the ground continuously from touchdown to end. For the early part of the track, the damage was confined to minor damage to homes with numerous trees downed from Junction City to near Tatum Rd approximately 8 miles south of El Dorado. In Junction City, two people were injured when a tree fell on their home as they were in bed. As the tornado approached Tatum Rd, it appears to have intensified significantly while growing wider in its destruction. It was through the area from Tatum Rd, across Hwy 7 and into the vicinity of Rushwood Rd that the storm did its greatest damage. Numerous homes, both mobile and well constructed frame homes were either destroyed or heavily damaged. A number of vehicles were rolled and tossed through the air, landing several yards from their initial location. It was in the area of Tatum Rd through Rushwood Rd that two fatalities occurred, both of them elderly residents. The majority of the injuries also occurred in this area. After leaving the Rushwood Rd area, the storm began to weaken and decreasing in path width. Except for minor structural damage to buildings in Lawson, trees downed or broken was the main damage for the latter part of the track.

Began near Junction City (33.0167, -92.7333).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5482100. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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