Flood — Little River, Arkansas

2021-06-08 to 2021-06-12 · near Jewell, Little River, Arkansas

Event narrative

Widespread rainfall amounts of 3-6+ inches, with isolated amounts up to 10 inches, fell across Central and Southern McCurtain County Oklahoma on June 7th-8th, resulting in widespread flooding across these areas. This did result in considerable rises along the Little River some 40-50 river miles downstream at Horatio, AR (Sevier County), which crested at 30.89 feet on June 10th, 2021. This was just above the 30ft major flood stage, although impacts were mainly confined to considerable lowland flooding of several hundred acres of grazing and farmland, along with significant backwater flooding along the Cossatot River with its confluence with the Little River north of Wilton. This high water routed downstream along the Little River south of Horatio to just northwest of the Winthrop community in Northern Little River County, where a 63 year old white female tried to paddle a small boat down a country backroad off of LR-52 to her cabin along the Little River during the night of June 10th. Unfortunately, her boat capsized with the victim drowning due to the strong currents. Her body was not found until June 11th, after the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission initiated a search for her.

Wider weather episode

An upper low pressure system drifted north over Southeast Oklahoma and Western Arkansas during the early morning hours of June 7th, with an upper level disturbance beneath the attendant trough enhancing an area of showers and thunderstorms over Southwest Arkansas. A moist and unstable air mass was in place, with weak steering also present which resulted in slow-moving storms producing locally heavy rainfall. Rainfall amounts of 3-5 inches fell from Southern Howard County across Northern Hempstead and Nevada Counties, which resulted in flash flooding over Northern Hempstead County where several roads were flooded and closed.

Another complex of showers and thunderstorms developed during the early morning hours of June 7th across Northwest Texas, and shifted east-southeast across North Texas throughout the morning, ahead of another shortwave trough that ejected east beneath an upper low pressure system that had begun to lift north across Southeast Oklahoma and Western Arkansas. The air mass ahead of this complex of storms across the Ark-La-Tex warmed considerably throughout the day, resulting in moderately unstable conditions within a marginally sheared environment. Thus, the storms intensified as they entered East Texas and remained severe and they progressed east across Southern Arkansas and North Louisiana. Trees and power lines were downed throughout the path of these storms, with a tornado briefly touching down just west of Calion, AR in Northeast Union County from a storm that developed ahead of the main line of storms. These storms exited Southwest Arkansas during the late afternoon hours.

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Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1068472. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.