EF2 Tornado — Baxter, Arkansas

2024-05-26 · near Arkana, Baxter, Arkansas

Event narrative

The Sycamore Heights Tornado developed near the end of Fallen Timber Lane west of

Baxter County Road 69, moving east crossing this County Road

69 south of Maple Hollow Road. Several trees were either snapped

or uprooted along this section of the path, but some light

structural damage was noted as it crossed County Road 69, along

with blowing down a fence. As the tornado crossed Morton Creed,

it turned towards the north then crossed Unger Trail, causing

more tree damage and some minor structural damage. It was near

this area where this tornado came in very close proximity to an

adjacent, much larger tornado (Briarcliff Tornado) just to the

southeast near Arkansas Highway 5. This tornado started to move

just north of the southern tornado as it crossed Highway 5,

ripping a roof off a home consistent with EF-2 damage. Lifting

further north, the tornado cross over some neighborhoods east of

Arkansas Highway 5 in northwest portions of Briarcliff, causing

mainly tree damage and some minor structural damage. At this

point, the tornado began moving in a more northeast direction

towards Sycamore Heights, then eventually lifting in the Sycamore

Spring neighborhood. The damage along the rest of this track was

primarily uprooted or snapped trees. This additional tornado was

confirmed from satellite and high resolution areal imagery, also

showing a distinction from the much larger Briarcliff named

tornado just to the south. This tornado was rated an EF2 with

maximum estimated winds of 115 mph.

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 → (36.2521, -92.3265)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1181789. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.