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EF1 tornado in Van Buren County, Arkansas

Tornado January 8, 2008 · Van Buren County, Arkansas

EF1

Rating

20.5 mi

Whole path

350 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.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 350 yards (0.20 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 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 Conway County continued into Van Buren County. Hundreds of trees were blown down in the Ozark National Forest. The tornado dissipated before leaving the boundaries of the forest.

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 Liberty Spgs (35.4609, -92.7321).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 65420. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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