Thunderstorm Wind — Columbia, Arkansas

2024-01-12 · near Calhoun, Columbia, Arkansas

Event narrative

Trees downed on Highway 82 East, Highway 19 South, and Highway 78 South.

Wider weather episode

Extensive convection developed early in the morning on January 12th across Northeast Texas into Southwest Arkansas, in advance of a strong mid/upper-level shortwave trough moving across North Texas. Low-level moisture gradually increased across the warm sector environment, with MLCAPE values in the 1000-1500 J/kg range. As a 100+ knot mid-level jet associated with the approaching shortwave shifted across the Ark-La-Tex region, already-favorable deep-layer shear continued to increase, allowing more organized and sustained storm structures to evolve throughout the morning. The severe wind threat increased as the primary convective line accelerated eastward while a few discrete storms ahead of the line resulted in a few reports of isolated large hail as well, including Little River County where quarter size hail was reported in Foreman and Columbia County where isolated wind damage was reported just east of Magnolia.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (33.2500, -93.1500)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1158065. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.