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EF1 tornado in Crawford County, Arkansas

Tornado May 3, 2021 · Crawford County, Arkansas

EF1

Rating

41.8 mi

Whole path

2,200 yd

Path width

Injury

$16.2M

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Sequoyah County, Oklahoma → Sequoyah County, Oklahoma → Crawford County → Sebastian County → Crawford County → Crawford County → Crawford County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 2,200 yards (1.25 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 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 is the fourth segment of a four segment tornado. After moving back into Crawford County, the tornado removed a large portion of the roof of the Crawford County Courthouse in Van Buren. Numerous homes and businesses were also damaged in Van Buren, and numerous power poles and trees were snapped by the tornado. This very large tornado then moved northeast across portions of Rudy and Alma, and then dissipated southeast of Mountainburg. Many trees were snapped or uprooted, outbuildings were destroyed, homes and businesses were damaged, and numerous power poles were snapped. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in this segment of the tornado was 100 to 110 mph.

The wider storm

Severe thunderstorms developed across portions of northwestern Arkansas during the evening of the 3rd, along and east of a stationary front that stretched across the area. The air mass across much of northwestern Arkansas became very unstable ahead of the storms, and wind shear across the region increased as an upper level disturbance approached from the west. These conditions supported the development of bowing line segments, which produced several tornadoes, and damaging wind gusts.

Began near Van Buren (35.4350, -94.3700).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 958732. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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