EF2 tornado, Biggers to Ingram, Arkansas, August 27, 2020

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

August 27, 2020

Touchdown

10:07 PM CDT (03:07 UTC)

Lifted

10:23 PM CDT (03:23 UTC)

On the ground

16 minutes

Path length

14.0 miles (22.6 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$200,000

County

Randolph County

Touchdown point

36.308, -90.809

Lift-off point

36.424, -91.013

Record number

2008272107-01

22 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LZK, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 115 mph.

• Wind uplifted the roof center section and tossed the debris to the WSW. The portion of the house with least damage was opposite the open carport west side that shared roof structure with the home. This was the most severe damage of the tornado.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

Tropical Storm Laura moved ashore from the Gulf of Mexico near Cameron, LA, around 1200 AM CST on August 27, 2020 with 150 mph sustained winds! This part of the state had never experienced such a powerful (Category 4) hurricane. Measured gusts exceeded 130 mph in Lake Charles, LA. Not only was there widespread structural damage, a television tower was destroyed and the WSR-88D (Doppler Weather Radar) at the local National Weather Service (NWS) office was obliterated. Staff at the office was evacuated prior to the arrival of Laura, with backup provided by NWS Brownsville, TX.||Laura remained a hurricane well inland as the system ventured to the north at around 15 mph. A swath of heavy rain (two to more than five inches) spread into southern, central, and northeast Arkansas in the twenty four hour period ending at 700 am CDT on the 28th. Fordyce (Dallas County) received 5.25 inches of precipitation, with 4.48 inches at Cabot (Lonoke County), 4.39 inches at Marche (Pulaski County), 4.37 inches at North Little Rock (Pulaski County), 4.17 inches at Keo (Lonoke County), 3.85 inches at Calamine (Sharp County), 3.60 inches at Stuttgart (Arkansas County), 3.55 inches at Batesville (Independence County) and El Dorado (Union County), 3.53 inches at Sheridan (Grant County), and 3.50 inches at Alicia (Lawrence County).||The atmosphere was loaded with moisture, and this created high rainfall rates. Water came down faster than it could be carried away, and roads flooded at Benton (Saline County), North Little Rock and Sherwood (both in Pulaski County), Walnut Ridge and near Ravenden (both in Lawrence County), and a few miles east of Mena (Polk County).

A storm survey crew from the NWS Office in Little Rock found tornado consistent with an EF2 rating. A house sustained major roof damage on Highway 328 west of Maynard, with most of the walls still standing. An agricultural shop was destroyed 2 miles south of Biggers. ||The tornado started just southeast of US67/62 southwest of|Biggers, destroying a metal farm building and snapping trees|along Lutrell Cemetery Road. The tornado continued northwest|blowing in some garage doors on some large metal buildings, along|with snapping limbs off of multiple trees along Gas Plant and|Biggers-Reyno roads. The tornado continued northwest for several|miles, causing mainly damage to trees, from broken limbs, to|uprooting or snapping those tree trunks. The worst damage was|observed at a site built home off of State Hwy 328 and Jerrett|Loop Road southwest of Maynard, where large sections of the roof|were torn off allowing a couple walls to fall inward. At the same|residence, a large metal outbuilding or barn was destroyed. Many|mature trees were snapped or uprooted around this location. The|tornado finally lifted further northwest along State Hwy 251|south of Palestine Road.

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.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 01:50 UTC and running to 03:54 UTC.

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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:00 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.

Corning (4M9), 24 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Memphis radar (KNQA), 147 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:05 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2020 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are

14 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.