Twisters noted at two sites in state

The thunderstorms that swept through the state Thursday night and Friday morning kicked up one weak tornado that touched down east of Altheimer and a stronger one that injured five people and damaged structures in the Pike County town of Kirby, according to the National Weather Service.

Justin Condry, a meteorologist at the NWS office in North Little Rock, said an EF0 tornado, with maximum winds of 75 mph, touched down for one minute, from 1:57 to 1:58 a.m. Friday and stayed on the ground for seven-tenths of a mile along Arkansas 58.

Condry said a storm survey team went to the site on Friday and could find little evidence of the twister other than damage to some trees, adding that Enhanced Fujita Scale determinations are based on levels of damage.

“There was no damage to any structures,” he said, “and because there were fields on both sides of the road that didn’t show evidence of damage, we had to grade it an EF0. There is a chance it could have been stronger.”

Condry said the survey team was sent to the area because there was evidence on the NWS radar that there was rotation.

“That just meant that there was rotation in the clouds so we go and determine if that rotation reached the ground,” he said.

Crews also went to Kirby, which is located west of Pine Bluff in the Ouachita National Forest area, where they found damage to houses and mobile homes, power poles snapped, trees uprooted and electric lines downed. Two people were injured in one house and three others were injured in a second house, Condry said. The injuries were minor, according to media reports.

The Kirby tornado had winds up to 135 mph, stayed on the ground for three minutes, from 10:50 to 10:53 p.m. Thursday, and covered 1.8 miles, Condry said.