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EF2 tornado in Lonoke County, Arkansas

Tornado April 3, 2008 · Lonoke County, Arkansas

EF2
Rating
9.4 mi
Path length
300 yd
Path width
$2.0M
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 300 yards (0.17 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

A tornado began southwest of Cabot and was most intense as it traveled through industrial and business areas on the west side of the railroad tracks in Cabot. Business structures destroyed included a self-storage warehouse and two storage buildings. A truck repair building was badly damaged, and two large warehouses also suffered damage. Several vehicles on a used-car lot were damaged when a large canopy fell. A canopy was damaged at a gas station, and there was roof damage to several businesses. To the east of the railroad tracks, numerous houses sustained roof damage, both in the middle of Cabot and on northeast through the Shiloh subdivision. A few houses and vehicles were damaged by falling trees.

The wider storm

The event began with a warm front moving north from the Gulf Coast region on the 3rd. The front was followed by above normal temperatures and abundant moisture. There was plenty of fuel for developing thunderstorms. A large area of showers and thunderstorms developed near the stalled front in northern and western Arkansas during the evening of the 3rd.

During the early morning hours of the 4th, it became a heavy rain event.

Began near Cabot (34.9421, -92.0643).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 92053. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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