EF1 Tornado — Chicot, Arkansas

2016-03-13 · near Dermott, Chicot, Arkansas

Event narrative

This tornado started on the southwest side of Dermott just west of Buckner Lane. Here several trees were snapped. As it crossed Buckner, six power poles were taken down. It then crossed Trotter Street, where more trees were snapped with others uprooted. A fence was laid down as well. A few homes here had minor roof damage where shingles were blown off. The tornado then tracked across US Highway 165 where it moved through open field. It tracked into the South Delta Regional Correctional Facility. Quite a bit of damage was done to the facility as it took a direct hit. Several large sections of the outer fence were torn down. Five buildings on the south side of the complex sustained roof damage where shingles and sheet paper were removed. The gym building, a metal structure, was heavily damaged where a large section of wall was removed. The main building of the complex suffered roof damage where roughly half of the roof was lifted or had parts removed. The roof is not a typical roof; it has several layers. Large portions of the foam insulation were pulled out along with several sections of a thin roof covering. A couple of the guard watch towers had the windows blown out and some minor damage. One employee was injured trying to exit a tower and broke a leg. The tornado then moved into a wooded area, where trees were snapped and a metal carport was thrown and destroyed. As the tornado crossed Highway 35, many more trees were damaged. One home sustained minor roof damage on the south side of the highway. The tornado crossed US Highway 65 and snapped more trees. It then continued through a large wooded area and farmland and it moved into Desha County. It then crossed Highway 159 where many more trees were snapped and uprooted. Where it crossed Highway 159, a home sustained some minor roof damage and had the wood framed shed destroyed. A few power lines were down here as well. The tornado continued northeast into a wooded area where more trees were damaged. Though the tornado likely dissipated a bit farther east, no access was available to that area due to flooding. The total path length was 9.2 miles, with 2.6 miles of that in Desha County. The maximum estimated winds were 105 mph.

Wider weather episode

As high pressure over the East Coast refused to move, a storm system approached the ArkLaMiss from the west and stalled just to the west of the region on March 7th. While warm moist air from the Gulf of Mexico filtered north and encompassed the region, a series of potent upper level disturbances began lifting northeast across the Lower Mississippi River Valley. This set the stage for multiple rounds of torrential rains that fell almost continuously across the ArkLaMiss from March 8th through March 12th. These prolonged torrential rains resulted in widespread flash flooding and river flooding across the region, with numerous area rivers reaching moderate and major flood stages. Floodwaters damaged numerous homes, businesses, and closed many primary and secondary roads across the region, with some secondary roads washed out.

As the storm system finally exited the region late on the 12th, another fast moving, compact storm system followed in its wake during the evening of March 13th. This system brought another round of heavy rain to the Delta region, in addition to several reports of hail and damaging straight line winds. Tornadoes were spawned by this system as well, which included one that affected Chicot County.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (33.5082, -91.4509)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 623118. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.