Tornado in Pulaski County, Arkansas

A few photos of a tornado, all approximately co-located, is likely the only documentation we will have of a tornado that occurred near much stronger and impactful straight line wind damage. The tornado most likely occurred over a remote, heavily treed area within Camp Robinson. Due to widespread wind damage from 80+ mph winds in the area, the damage associated with the weaker spin-off tornado in not detectable. This brief tornado will be classified as an EF-U due to a lack of surveyable evidence. It was likely active for less than one minute.

An upper level storm system via a powerful jet axis moved around the periphery of High Pressure and drove a cold front into a very unstable atmosphere which provided the lifting mechanism for air parcels which would become severe thunderstorms. The cold front arrived during the heating of the day and plenty of CAPE was present to promote powerful updrafts that would suspend large hailstones. The collapsing of storms created a rush of cooler air (outflow) sending other storms downstream that would produce damaging winds. A couple embedded tornadoes were also noted during this period given the favorable atmosphere across central Arkansas.