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EF2 tornado in Conway County, Arkansas

Tornado January 8, 2008 · Conway County, Arkansas

EF2

Rating

20.5 mi

Whole path

440 yd

Path width

Death

Injuries

$5.3M

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Pope County → Conway County → Van Buren County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

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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 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

The tornado from Pope County moved into northwestern Conway County. According to the Conway County Office of Emergency Management, three homes were destroyed, and 12 others suffered damage ranging from light to heavy. One woman was injured in a mobile home. Ten other structures, such as chicken houses and barns, were destroyed; 13 such structures were damaged. A church, which had stood for more than 100 years, was destroyed and an adjacent cemetery was damaged. Three natural gas well sites were damaged but there was no release of gas. The tornado moved into the Ozark National Forest, where hundreds of trees were blown down. Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe declared Conway County a state disaster area. The tornado continued into Van Buren County.

The wider storm

Severe thunderstorms affected a large part of Arkansas on the 8th. There were a number of reports of wind damage and an isolated tornado.

Began near Jerusalem (35.4110, -92.8517).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 65418. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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