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EF2 tornado in Clay County, Arkansas

Tornado February 24, 2018 · Clay County, Arkansas

EF2

Rating

41.9 mi

Whole path

150 yd

Path width

Death

Injuries

$2.5M

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Clay County → Dunklin County, Missouri → New Madrid County, Missouri; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 150 yards (0.09 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 one fatality was east of Knobel Arkansas near the intersection of Highway 90 and Highway 135 in a mobile home. A few homes, trees and power poles were damaged as the tornado tracked toward the St. Francis River. The path was intermittent. The tornado continued into Dunklin County.

The wider storm

A strong cold front interacted with a very unstable airmass across the Midsouth during the afternoon and evening hours of February 24h. All facets of severe weather occurred.

Began near Knobel (36.3001, -90.6333).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

2 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF2 Mississippi County EF1 Cross County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 738582. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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