NWS confirms multiple tornadoes touched down in northern Arizona, including 1 near Prescott

The National Weather Service confirmed two tornadoes hit northern Arizona on Wednesday.

Following the event of a possible tornado, a survey process is required to determine if the weather event that struck is indeed a tornado. Some representatives from Flagstaff visited the sites of the potential tornadoes, one near Prescott and the other in Heber-Overgaard, after getting pictures of damage to confirm the twisters.

“When you go there you basically (assess) the severity of the damage and then you compile all the information together to come up with an estimate of how strong the tornado was that caused that damage,” Jake Lewandowski a meteorologist at NWS Flagstaff told KTAR News 92.3 FM.

The first tornado hit about 6 miles south of Prescott in Yavapai County on Wednesday morning. NWS Flagstaff said the twister started at 7:32 a.m. and ended at 7:46 a.m., as it made its way through the Bradshaw Mountains, crossing Spruce Mountain before dispersing near Walker Road, south of Lynx Lake.

The tornado’s winds reached up to 105 miles per hour moving north-northeast for nearly 8 miles. Officials determined it was an EF1 tornado based on “swaths of snapped and uprooted ponderosa pine trees.”

Lewandowski said the tornado struck east of Groom Creek in a more rural and mountainous area. He said tree damage and a road closure were the only major impacts.

The second tornado struck south of Heber-Overgaard on Wednesday evening, moving north across Highway 260 through the town of about 3,000 people, about 140 miles northeast of Phoenix in Navajo County.

The twister, which started at 6:59 p.m., later dispersed near Highway 277 as it ended at 7:10 p.m. Also an EF1 rated storm, the tornado’s winds reached an estimated 110 miles per hour, which caused damage on the southern side of Highway 260 and also in central portions of Overgaard.

One injury was reported, which was not life-threatening. However, the severe storm tore through Heber-Overgaard, leaving buildings damaged, RVs destroyed and a man homeless.

A downed tree and roof damage were the main indicators of the tornado in Heber-Overgaard, Lewandowski said.

Neither tornado was very significant, according to the meteorologist, as both tornadoes were an EF1, on the scale the ranges from EF0 to EF5 in severity.

“Definitely not common by any means. It’s not unheard of though,” Lewandowski said. “I don’t want to say that it’s like the craziest thing ever. We do have them from time to time. And this setup was kind of a classic setup for tornadoes in Arizona.”

Between Wednesday morning and Thursday evening/night, there were a total of 16 tornado warnings issued from the National Weather Service in Flagstaff and Tucson.

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