EF3 Tornado — Boone, Arkansas

2024-05-26 · near Bellefonte, Boone, Arkansas

Event narrative

The Boone-Marion County tornado began just to the west of Bellefonte Road, near

the intersection of Maxie Camp Road in Boone County, damaging

trees and a few power poles as it crossed the road. A few homes

sustained some damage, mainly to their roofs and the southern and

southeastern exterior walls. A hay barn was also completely

destroyed. The tornado then kept moving east into an open field,

snapping trees in its path and along Maxie Camp Road. The tornado

crossed US Highway 65, moving over the Boone County Sheriff's

Department Building and an Arkansas State Police Troop Center.

The two buildings sustained very minor damage, mainly consisting

of missing shingles and bent light poles. A loaded trailer of the

Boone County Sheriff's Department was lofted onto a gate, and

then further tossed onto an Arkansas State Patrol car, both

sustaining major damage. Just east of the highway, a storage unit

complex sustained damage to all three of its storage buildings,

and an RV was flipped on its side. Another business building

behind the storage units only sustained damage to glass windows

and a broken garage door. Just to the south of the storage

complex, another large metal building with multiple bay doors

facing the prevailing tornado forward speed winds was badly

damaged, with most walls collapsed. The tornado kept moving east,

expanding in width, and snapping trees and power poles along

Maxie Camp Road. As the tornado approached the intersection of

Maxie Camp and Starkey Road, a mobile home was completely lofted

and destroyed. Extensive tree damage was observed all along the

north-south portion of Maxie Camp Road. A couple homes, one with

a CMU footprint and the other with a partial concrete pad and

open crawlspace concrete footing were completely lifted off of

their bases and destroyed, with below code anchoring methods

found on both of these homes. Trees in the immediate vicinity of

the destroyed homes were snapped, and a large pickup truck was

rolled onto its roof. This was the location of the worst observed

structural damage, consistent with EF3 wind speeds of up to

145 mph. A resident of one of the destroyed homes sustained non-

life-threatening injuries. The tornado then started to move due

northeast, paralleling US Highway 62, moving just southeast of

Olvey, and causing mainly tree damage and damaging small

outbuildings. Boone County Sheriff's Department reported one

fatality in Boone County inside a destroyed mobile home, near the

Olvey area. This tornado then exited Boone County and entered Marion County.

Wider weather episode

A couple long-tracked supercells moved across the northern two to three rows of counties during the predawn hours of the Memorial Day weekend. These storms triggered numerous tornadoes, some of which strong and long-lived, in addition to widespread straight-line wind damage.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (36.1745, -93.0533)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1181735. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.