EF1 Tornado — Randolph, Arkansas

2024-05-26 · near Pocahontas Muni Arpt, Randolph, Arkansas

Event narrative

The Pocahontas Tornado began near the Imperial Dinner Theater

just south of the Pocahontas Municipal Airport. This tornado

tracked east north east along Highway 304 East before dissipating

near Industrial Drive. Significant roof loss and other damage was

noted to small professional building. Several other nearby

buildings sustained damage. A truck lofted and rotated 90 degrees

and flipped before landing on its roof, crumbling the cab. No one

was in the vehicle when this happened, but the truck left a few

gouge marks in the parking lot surface. A number of electrical

poles were either snapped or broken off, as well as some nearby

trees. This tornado was rated an EF1 with maximum estimated winds

of 110 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 → (36.2382, -90.9539)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1181961. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.