Meteorologists were still conducting assessments of the tornado that struck Little Rock Thursday night. But Steve Bays, a hydrologist for the Little Rock branch of the National Weather Service, said preliminary research indicated the tornado reached at least EF2 strength.
The tornado’s path “will be several miles long, with some gaps in it” as it lifted and then touched back down again, Bays said.
One person was reported missing in suburban Pulaski County, officials said, but otherwise there appear to have been no injuries.
NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center recorded eight tornado reports from the strong storm system that stretched from Texas to New England – but that number is preliminary and may well drop, since many of the reports could be the same tornado seen from different vantage points.
Seven of the reports are from the Little Rock area, while another was of a tornado near Ridgeland, Miss.