{"id":2487,"date":"2010-03-11T16:35:51","date_gmt":"2010-03-11T23:35:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/?p=2487"},"modified":"2010-03-11T17:03:14","modified_gmt":"2010-03-12T00:03:14","slug":"tornado-claims-the-life-of-an-elderly-man-in-arkansas-first-tornado-fatality-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/severe-weather\/tornado-claims-the-life-of-an-elderly-man-in-arkansas-first-tornado-fatality-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Tornado claims the life of an elderly man in Arkansas; First tornado fatality of the year"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Radar
Radar image of the tornado in White County, Arkansas. Two other twisters were reported in the state Wednesday, one that claimed the life of an elderly man. (NWS)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tornadoes tore through Arkansas late yesterday and claimed the first tornado victim of 2010. One person was reported dead and three injured as the series of storms moved across the state.<\/p>\n

The first twister of the night struck at 6:28pm local time in Saline County. That tornado damaged nearly two dozen homes but no injuries were reported.<\/p>\n

The National Weather Service<\/a> reported a second tornado was spawned out of a storm cell near Center Hill in White County. Nine homes were damaged and one person was injured.<\/p>\n

The deadly twister was the third of the night which struck near Pearson in Cleburne County just after 9:00pm. Renee Preslar, spokeswoman for the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management<\/a>, said that twister killed an elderly man and injured two others.<\/p>\n

Thus far there has been a distinct lack of tornadoes reported in 2010. There were 41 twisters reported in January, slightly above the three year average for January of 37. That was followed by only one twister in February, the fewest in the month since record-keeping began in 1950.<\/p>\n

There have been seven tornadoes reported thus far in March, all of which occurred in the last 48 hours.<\/p>\n