EF0 tornado, Gid, Arkansas, September 2, 2008

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mph

   Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

4. EF3136 to 165 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. EF5over 200 mph

   Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

7. Unrated

   The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

Rating

EF0

Date

September 2, 2008

Touchdown

5:50 PM CDT (22:50 UTC)

Lifted

5:52 PM CDT (22:52 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.9 miles (1.5 km)

Path width

60 yards (55 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$25,000

County

Izard County

Touchdown point

35.987, -91.851

Lift-off point

35.997, -91.863

Record number

0809021650-01

Tropical Depression Gustav entered the southwest corner of Arkansas on the evening of the 2nd and lingered in the southwest part of the state for nearly 24 hours. By mid-evening on the 3rd, Gustav was about 75 miles west of Little Rock. Gustav exited northwest Arkansas on the morning of the 4th. During its passage across Arkansas, Gustav produced excessive rainfall, strong winds, flash flooding and river flooding, and one tornado. In the Little Rock County Warning Area, wind gusts of 30 to 40 mph were common. The strongest gust measured was 48 mph at Little Rock National Airport/Adams Field. Power was knocked out to more than 100,000 electric customers. Wind damage was estimated at just over $22 million. Storm total rainfall amounts exceeded 5 inches in many areas. The largest totals were 11.50 inches at Bismarck and 11.26 inches at Leola. Flood damage was estimated at just over $13 million. The lowest barometric pressure was 29.49 inches at Mount Ida. There was only one small, weak tornado, which produced damage around $25,000.

A weak tornado was spawned by Tropical Depression Gustav. A mobile home had damage to its roof, the porch roof and the underpinning were torn off, and the carport sailed up a hill and became stuck in a fence. A storm door was torn off a house, as were a few pieces of siding. A carport and trampoline at a house were destroyed. A few large limbs were torn off trees.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:36 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Batesville (Awos) (BVX), 35 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Little Rock radar (KLZK), 134 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:00 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2008 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are

19 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.