EF2 tornado, Corley to Dublin, Arkansas, January 10, 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

January 10, 2020

Touchdown

7:44 PM CST (01:44 UTC)

Lifted

8:02 PM CST (02:02 UTC)

On the ground

18 minutes

Path length

13.6 miles (21.9 km)

Path width

250 yards (229 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$500,000

County

Logan County

Touchdown point

35.215, -93.600

Lift-off point

35.378, -93.462

Record number

2001101944-01

21 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 120 mph.

• Debris path continues well into a wet field I can’t access to the southwest and northeast.
• Chicken houses and several other outbuildings completely destroyed.
• More outbuildings completely destroyed.
• Likely near end of tornado path.

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

The month started off with a bang on the 10th. It felt like spring in Arkansas, with high temperatures in the 60s to lower 70s. As the day began, a powerful storm system was looming to the west in New Mexico. Moisture levels were on the rise ahead of the system. It was a perfect setup for severe weather and flash flooding.||By late afternoon and into the overnight hours/early on the 11th, a massive damaging wind episode unfolded. Wind gusts from 60 to 90 mph pounded parts of the state. Trees and/or power lines were downed at Yellville (Marion County), Henderson (Baxter County), Elizabeth (Fulton County), Melbourne (Izard County), Leslie (Searcy County), a few miles west of Arkadelphia (Clark County), Malvern (Hot Spring County), Judsonia (White County), Fordyce (Dallas County), Pine Bluff (Jefferson County), Cotton Plant (Woodruff County), Monticello (Drew County), St. Charles (Arkansas County), and Watson (Desha County). Some fallen trees landed on homes. Wind recording equipment measured a 74 mph gust at Fargo (Monroe County), and a 71 mph gust at the University of Arkansas at Monticello (Drew County).||There were also isolated tornadoes. At 740 pm CST on the 10th, a tornado (rated EF2) was spawned southwest of Midway (Logan County). The tornado cut close to a fourteen mile path before dissipating northeast of Scranton (Logan County).||Nine other mostly weak tornadoes (eight rated EF1/one rated EF2) were confirmed across the state through the wee hours of the 11th. Two of these tornadoes were in the Little Rock County Warning Area near Seaton (Lonoke County) and Jerome (Drew County). The former tornado blew in a grain bin and tossed a shed into nearby trees. The latter tornado mangled a silo. Trees were uprooted or snapped, and utility poles were taken out.||A few places reported sleet or snow on the back side of the system.

The tornado touched down east of Cove Lake off of Mt. Salem Road where a barn was destroyed. It continued northeast damaging a mobile home along St. Louis Valley Road. After crossing Arkansas Hwy. 109 just west of Midway, the tornado destroyed a mobile home off of Old Military Rd. As it crossed Hwy. 109 again south of Prairie View, chicken houses were destroyed. Homes lost large sections of their roofs along Parks Rd. southeast of Prairie View, but most of their walls remained. Additional outbuildings and chicken houses were damaged or destroyed east of Scranton. Several trees and power lines were blown down along the path. The tornado lifted just north of the Tokalon community.

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

17 minutes of warning. NWS LZK issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:27 UTC, 17 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 23:34 UTC and running to 04:13 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:55 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.

Russellville Municipal Airport (RUE), 40 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Western Arkansas radar (KSRX), 75 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:44 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

17 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.