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EF2 tornado in Benton County, Arkansas

Tornado October 20, 2019 · Benton County, Arkansas

EF2

Rating

40.5 mi

Whole path

2,640 yd

Path width

$6.2M

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Adair County, Oklahoma → Benton County → Benton County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 2,640 yards (1.50 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

This tornado developed on the north side of Siloam Springs. It moved along Highway 412, and then across the southern portion of the Siloam Springs airport, as well as a housing subdivision east of the airport. The roof was blown off a business, many homes and businesses sustained roof damage, several hangars at the airport were damaged, numerous trees were uprooted, and power poles were snapped. The tornado became very large and moved east-northeast from the east side of Siloam Springs. The roof of a wood-framed permanent home was entirely removed, and a large, well-built, wood-framed outbuilding was destroyed on Andria Circle, which are the primary damage indicators that resulted in the EF-2 rating. These structures were on a hill, and nearby hardwood trees were snapped, homes were damaged with windows blown out and roof structures lifted off the frame of the house and set back down. The tornado continued to move east-northeast across Highfill and Cave Springs, and into Rogers. Numerous homes were damaged, outbuildings were destroyed, many power poles were blown down, and numerous trees were uprooted. A metal building structure that was open-aired on the south side sustained severe damage. Businesses in the Pinnacle Hills area of Rogers were damaged. From Rogers, the tornado moved northeast, crossing inlets of Beaver Lake before dissipating. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in the tornado was 110 to 120 mph.

The wider storm

Thunderstorms developed over central Oklahoma during the early evening of the 20th, along and just ahead of a cold front moving into the area. The atmosphere ahead of the front was very unstable. Wind fields across the region strengthened with the approach of a strong upper level storm system, and very strong wind shear developed over northwestern Arkansas by late evening. The thunderstorms moved across eastern Oklahoma during the evening, and organized into a solid line of thunderstorms before they moved into northwest Arkansas. The thunderstorms produced very strong downburst wind as they moved through the region. Several tornadoes developed along the leading edge of the thunderstorm line, one of which was long-track and strong.

Began near Siloam Spgs (36.1778, -94.5310).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 862916. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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