Tornado, Woodruff
- When
- March 1, 4:54 PM CST to 5:11 PM CST
- Where
- Woodruff County, Patterson to 2 mi NE of Mc Crory
- Rating
- F2
- Path length
- 12 mi
- Path width
- 880 yd
- Property damage
- $500,000
- Coordinates
- 35.250, -91.270
Tornado in Arkansas, March 1, 1997
5 miles west of Patterson and moved northeastward. The tornado crossed Highway 64 about a mile northwest of Patterson where some trees were snapped off and a roadside park sustained damage.
Where it happened
Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.
- Tornadoes
- Tropical storms and surge
- Floods
- Wind
- Hail
- Winter weather
- Heat and drought
- Cold
- Fire, smoke and dust
- Marine and coastal
- Other
The toll
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $500,000
- Crop damage
- None recorded
- Events
- 1
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
What happened
The episode as NWS LZK wrote it up.
A tornado touched down about 1.5 miles west of Patterson and moved northeastward. The tornado crossed Highway 64 about a mile northwest of Patterson where some trees were snapped off and a roadside park sustained damage. 3 miles north of McCrory on Highway 17, the tornado destroyed a house trailer and damaged some power poles. About a half mile north of the intersection of Highways 37 and 269, the tornado reached F2 strength, heavily damaging some homes and uprooting a number of trees. Near the intersection of Highways 37 and 145, a duck hunting club was destroyed and a farm shop and grain bins were damaged. The last damage noted in Woodruff County was just off Highway 145 where a frame house was destroyed. The tornado exited Woodruff County at 511 pm CST.
The radar
The Little Rock radar (KLZK), 101 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 22:52 UTC.
Event by event
1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
What these are
- Tornado
- A violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and extending from a thunderstorm, filed with its path, width and Fujita or Enhanced Fujita rating from the damage survey.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
The same day elsewhere
- Tornado in Arkansas, March 1, 1997
- Tornado in Arkansas, March 1, 1997
- Tornado in Arkansas, March 1, 1997
- Flood in Kentucky, March 1 to 6, 1997
- Tornado in Arkansas, March 1, 1997
- Tornadoes in Tennessee, March 1, 1997
- Tornado in Arkansas, March 1, 1997
- Flooding in Tennessee, March 1 to 11, 1997
- Tornado in Arkansas, March 1, 1997
- Tornadoes in Arkansas, March 1, 1997
- Flash Flood in Ohio, March 1 to 2, 1997
- Tornadoes in Mississippi, March 1, 1997
More
Every storm in Arkansas in 1997Every state in 1997This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Arkansas, 1997Warnings in Arkansas, March 1997
Sources
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5600789.