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F3 tornado in Desha County, Arkansas

Tornado October 28, 1955 · Desha County, Arkansas

Rating

1.0 mi

Path length

100 yd

Path width

Injury

$25K

Damage as recorded

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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 F3 means. This tornado was rated on Fujita’s original scale, used until 2007. F3 meant severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned; the scale paired it with winds of 158–206 mph, figures later judged too high, especially toward the top of the scale, and revised downward in the Enhanced Fujita scale. Ratings then, as now, came from the damage.

NOAA’s online database has no written narrative for tornadoes before 1996 — just the numbers above, transcribed from the original storm logs. (NOAA’s monthly Storm Data publications, which carry written accounts, begin in 1959.)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 9984208. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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