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EF3 tornado in Van Buren County, Arkansas

Tornado May 2, 2008 · Van Buren County, Arkansas

EF3

Rating

45.3 mi

Whole path

1,600 yd

Path width

Deaths

Injuries

$47.0M

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Conway County → Van Buren County → Cleburne County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 1,600 yards (0.91 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF3 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF3 is severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, consistent with estimated gusts of 136–165 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 moved out of Conway County, east of Center Ridge, and entered Van Buren County, west-southwest of Damascus. The tornado destroyed 17 permanent homes and 8 mobile homes. It caused major damage to 30 homes and minor damage to 19 homes. Four chicken houses were destroyed, 8 horses were killed, and one bull was killed. A feed mill was destroyed and three businesses received major damage. One church was destroyed and another was severely damaged. A 4 year-old girl and her grandparents were killed when their house was destroyed on Scroggins Creek Rd. (County Road 65). The tornado exited Van Buren County, east-northeast of Morganton, and moved into Cleburne County, northwest of Crossroads.

The wider storm

A line of thunderstorms pushed into western Arkansas early on the morning of May 2nd. During the morning and afternoon hours, severe thunderstorms developed out ahead of the line and produced tornadoes.

Began near Damascus (35.3682, -92.4816).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF2 Pulaski County 1 dead EF2 Dallas County EF1 Van Buren County EF1 Lonoke County EF1 Pike County EF0 Woodruff County EF0 Monroe County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 92157. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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