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EF0 tornado in Polk County, Arkansas

Tornado March 17, 2008 · Polk County, Arkansas

EF0

Rating

0.3 mi

Path length

25 yd

Path width

$10K

Damage as recorded

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 25 yards (0.01 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 roof was taken off a room that was being added to a house. A few trees were snapped off.

The wider storm

Very heavy rain began developing late on the 17th in northern and western Arkansas, and continued on the 18th as a powerful storm system approached from Texas. The system dredged copious moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, and sent it toward Arkansas with a deep southerly wind flow. Well above normal precipitable water was noted, which enhanced rainfall efficiency across the region.

Began near Cherry Hill (34.5911, -93.9675).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 88469. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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