Landspout tornado touched down in part of Arkansas

File photo
File photo

An EF-0 landspout tornado touched down in part of Arkansas on Wednesday afternoon, staying on the ground for about a mile while packing winds up to 75 mph, officials said.

The tornado developed shortly after 4:50 p.m. near Little Rixie in northeast Prairie County, the National Weather Service said in a statement.

Over about the next 15 minutes, it traveled southwest over rice and soybean fields and Sanner Road, the agency said, noting the only report of damage was to a field pumping station in the area.

Landspout tornadoes develop when rotation that is already present on the ground gets sucked up into a developing thunderstorm, said Dennis Cavanaugh, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in North Little Rock.

That's different than "classic" tornadoes that develop within the rotation of the storm and can grow into large, damaging events, Cavanaugh said. Landspout tornadoes "do not have the potential to get super strong and powerful" and are typically short-lived, he said.

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