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EF0 tornado in Woodruff County, Arkansas

Tornado August 27, 2020 · Woodruff County, Arkansas

EF0

Rating

1.3 mi

Path length

50 yd

Path width

$20K

Damage as recorded

$5K

Crop damage

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 storm survey crew from the NWS Office in Little Rock found tornado damage consistent with an EF0 rating.

This tornado formed just northeast of the intersection of highways

37 and 269 north of McCrory, where a covered parking area roof was

blown west. At that same residence, a large tree fell southwest

onto the home. This tornado continued northwest over cropland,

pushing over a power pole off County Road 338, then proceeded to

cross State Highway 17 blowing down more trees and tree limbs.

This tornado lifted shortly afterwards to the northwest.

The wider storm

Tropical Storm Laura moved ashore from the Gulf of Mexico near Cameron, LA, around 1200 AM CST on August 27, 2020 with 150 mph sustained winds! This part of the state had never experienced such a powerful (Category 4) hurricane. Measured gusts exceeded 130 mph in Lake Charles, LA. Not only was there widespread structural damage, a television tower was destroyed and the WSR-88D (Doppler Weather Radar) at the local National Weather Service (NWS) office was obliterated. Staff at the office was evacuated prior to the arrival of Laura, with backup provided by NWS Brownsville, TX.

Laura remained a hurricane well inland as the system ventured to the north at around 15 mph. A swath of heavy rain (two to more than five inches) spread into southern, central, and northeast Arkansas in the twenty four hour period ending at 700 am CDT on the 28th. Fordyce (Dallas County) received 5.25 inches of precipitation, with 4.48 inches at Cabot (Lonoke County), 4.39 inches at Marche (Pulaski County), 4.37 inches at North Little Rock (Pulaski County), 4.17 inches at Keo (Lonoke County), 3.85 inches at Calamine (Sharp County), 3.60 inches at Stuttgart (Arkansas County), 3.55 inches at Batesville (Independence County) and El Dorado (Union County), 3.53 inches at Sheridan (Grant County), and 3.50 inches at Alicia (Lawrence County).

The atmosphere was loaded with moisture, and this created high rainfall rates. Water came down faster than it could be carried away, and roads flooded at Benton (Saline County), North Little Rock and Sherwood (both in Pulaski County), Walnut Ridge and near Ravenden (both in Lawrence County), and a few miles east of Mena (Polk County).

Began near Goodrich (35.3051, -91.1835).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

1 more tornado the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF2 Randolph County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 916551. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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