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March 8-13, 2016 Flooding & Tornadoes
Event Summary
As high pressure over the East Coast refused to move, a storm system approaching the ArkLaMiss from the west, stalled just to the west of the region on Monday March 7th. While warm moist air from the Gulf of Mexico filtered north and encompassed the region, a series of potent upper level disturbances began lifting northeast across the Lower Mississippi River Valley. This set the stage for multiple rounds of torrential rains that fell almost continuously across the ArkLaMiss from Tuesday, March 8th through Saturday, March 12th. These prolonged torrential rains resulted in widespread flash flooding and river flooding across the region, with numerous area rivers reaching moderate and major flood stages. Floodwaters damaged numerous homes, businesses, and closed many primary and secondary roads across the region, with some secondary roads washed out.
In addition, one weak tornado developed on Thursday, March 10 as a line of storms began to finally push to the east over central Mississippi. This weak EF-0 tornado touched down just west of Raleigh, snapping a few trees and causing minor damage to a metal roof of an outbuilding.
As the storm system finally exited the region late Saturday, another fast moving, compact storm system followed in its wake during the evening of Sunday, March 13th. This system brought another round of heavy rain to the Delta Region, in addition to several reports of hail and damaging straight line winds. Two tornadoes were spawned by this system as well. An EF-1 tornado affected the city of Dermott in Chicot County in Arkansas and continued into Desha County in Arkansas, causing quite a bit of damage to the South Delta Regional Correctional Facility in Dermott and 1 injury. An EF-0 tornado also touched down near Cleveland in Bolivar County in Mississippi.
Precipitation Summary
Rainfall Across the ArkLaMiss
Rainfall Across the Region: March 7-14, 2016
Rainfall Totals
Click on the location in the table for additional maps and details below.
Location | Start/ End Time |
Event Type | Fatalities/ Injuries |
Path Length | Path Width |
Smith County (3/10) 1 W Raleigh to Raleigh |
4:04 PM- 4:07 PM |
EF-0 Tornado 80 mph |
none | 1.2 miles | 80 yards |
Chicot/Desha County (3/13) 1 SSW Dermott to 8 ENE Dermott |
9:15 PM- 9:26 PM |
EF-1 Tornado 105 mph |
1 injury | 9.2 miles (2.6 mi in Desha Co.) |
300 yards |
Bolivar County (3/13) 1 WNW Cleveland to 1 NW Cleveland |
10:13 PM- 10:14 PM |
EF-0 Tornado 85 mph |
none | 1/2 mile | 50 yards |
Click on map above to see entire damage point notation and damage pictures at select points.
Event Summary |
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3/13/16 Chicot/Desha EF-1 Tornado
Click on map above to see entire damage point notation and damage pictures at select points.
Event Summary |
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3/13/16 Cleveland EF-0 Tornado
Click on map above to see entire damage point notation and damage pictures at select points.
Event Summary |
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Local Storm Reports
Click on the map below for additional details.