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EF0 tornado in Desha County, Arkansas

Tornado March 17, 2021 · Desha County, Arkansas

EF0
Rating
0.1 mi
Path length
10 yd
Path width
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

NOAA recorded where this tornado touched down but not where it lifted, so it appears as a point. 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 very brief, rope-like tornado occurred in a farm field about a mile southeast of McGehee. No visible structure damage was observed and the time was based on radar.

The wider storm

In Arkansas, the fireworks started early (during the predawn hours) on the 17th. Isolated storms unloaded large hail, including golf ball size hail just east of Scranton (Logan County), and quarter size hail at Atkins (Pope County) and Johnsville (Bradley County). After that, it turned into a bunch of heavy rain.

Two to more than three inches of rain dumped from Newport (Jackson County) to North Little Rock (Pulaski County). Vehicles stalled in high water, and people had to be rescued. Several roads were closed. Water was also over roads in North Little Rock and Sherwood (both in Pulaski County). At the latter location, a pond near a police station overflowed, and there was water everywhere.

At Searcy (White County), lightning struck a clinic and caused damage to electronic equipment. Power was knocked out to the facility temporarily.

In southeast Arkansas, rotation ramped up in one storm, and a Tornado Warning was disseminated at 430 pm CDT for eastern Drew and southern Desha Counties. At 437 pm CDT, a brief tornado (rated EF0) was witnessed in a farm field about a mile southeast of McGehee (Desha County). It was the first tornado of 2021 in the state.

Began near Mc Gehee Muni Arpt (33.6201, -91.3797).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 948220. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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