Mayflower / Vilonia Tornado Rated as “High-End” EF-4 by National Weather Service

It appears that Faulkner County has had the first EF4 or stronger tornado in the United States for 2014.

The National Weather Service has rated this past weekends torndado as an EF-4, according to a report released Wednesday. National Weather Service officials this week assessed damage from the tornado that went through and caused major damage to Vilonia, Mayflower and Paron. The tornado started just inside the Pulaski County line, four miles north of Lake Norrell, and went on a continuous damage path for at least 30 miles to Vilonia, according to the National Weather Service. Tornadoes are rated on the Enhanced Fujita scale 0 to 5, with 5 possessing the strongest winds. An EF-4 tornado can have winds up to 200 miles per hour, according to the National Weather Service.

“There were some houses that were pretty well cleaned off their foundations,” said John Robinson with the National Weather Service. “Again, in cases like that, we are going to look at the foundations of those houses, how they were constructed in making the decision.”

Some random weather facts to consider; The last time Vilonia (Faulkner County) was devastated by a tornado was April 25, 2011, almost three years to the day. Myself and Dan Decker were among some of the first people to arrive on the scene w/ emergency supplies in the aftermath of the storm. I think seeing that storm up close and personal had a stronger impact on me that I gave it credit at the time. On that day, a long-track (just over 51 miles) EF2 tornado killed four people on the southwest side of Vilonia. Since they started keeping reliable records in 1950, Vilonia (Faulkner County) has had five tornadoes. Aside from the April 27, 2014 and April 25, 2011 tornados, the other episodes happened on December 24, 1982 (rated F3), December 23, 1982 (rated F2) and March 12, 1961 (rated F2). If the death toll continues to rise, this could possibly be the deadliest single tornado in Arkansas since the Jonesboro twister (rated F4) of May 15, 1968 (35 fatalities). There has not been a tornado this strong (at least EF4) locally since May 25th in 2011. This tornado tracked 46 miles through Franklin, Logan and Johnson Counties. After that, no other tornado was rated higher than EF3.