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F3 tornado in Clark County, Arkansas

Tornado May 27, 1996 · Clark County, Arkansas

F3
Rating
41.0 mi
Whole path
440 yd
Path width
$1.9M
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Clark County → Dallas County; 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 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.

The wider storm

The tornado first touched down 2 1/2 miles south-southwest of Okolona. It first moved in an easterly direction, passing near the town of Center Point and across several county roads where a total of 17 homes and 3 outbuildings were either damaged or destroyed. A large amount of trees and power lines were also downed. The storm then travelled more in an east-northeast direction, touching down intermittently. A large amount of timber was blown down in the eastern part of the county several miles southeast of Griffithtown. The storm moved out of Clark County at around 315 pm CDT. No injuries were reported along the track of the tornado. Initial estimates place the amount of damage at around $1,800,000, with $1,300,000 of that in timber damage alone.

Began near Okolona (33.9700, -93.3500).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5554186. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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