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EF0 tornado in Prairie County, Arkansas

Tornado May 18, 2019 · Prairie County, Arkansas

EF0
Rating
0.2 mi
Path length
50 yd
Path width
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 50 yards (0.03 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 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

A weak EF0 tornado was confirmed near Slovak from thunderstorms that occurred Saturday evening. Damage was minimal as the tornado remained over mostly farmland.

The wider storm

While it heated up, it was not dry everywhere on the 15th. Before the ridge of high pressure could get here, a stationary front was in place across northeast sections of the state. Surrounding the front, scattered thunderstorms popped up during the afternoon. Some of the storms became strong to severe.

Mainly hail occurred with the strongest storms. The largest stones were about the size of a lime (two inches in diameter), and were reported just southwest of Salado (Independence County) at 711 pm CDT. Quarter to golf ball size hail was produced at few miles west of Pocahontas (Randolph County), north of Huff, southwest of Batesville, and at Cushman (all in Independence County).

A few days later (on the 18th), a powerful storm system went from the southern Plains to the upper Midwest, with a cold front dragged into the region by the system. As the day began, storms were ongoing from Texas into Oklahoma. A line of storms eventually made it into western Arkansas by 200 pm CDT.

Just like on the 1st, part of the line bowed out (indicating the presence of strong to damaging winds) from Fort Smith (Sebastian County) to Clarksville (Johnson County). There was extensive tree damage, with trees on houses and blocking roads. Hardest hit areas inlcuded Paris and Scranton (both in Logan County). Gusts likely exceeded 90 mph.

Along the way, several photos showed a lot of dust kicked up by the wind. Gustnadoes or dust devils were also generated as the wind speed rapidly increased. There was a weak tornado (rated EF0) produced three miles west of Slovak (Prairie County). A couple of grain bins were dented or pushed in.

Began near Slovak (34.6600, -91.6400).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 831115. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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