EF2 tornado in Benton County, Arkansas

This tornado developed over Paw Paw Hollow, south of Byers Road. It moved northeast, turned to the north-northeast, and then finally to the north and dissipated north of Bethlehem Road. It severely damaged a home, damaged about eight other homes, destroyed outbuildings, and snapped or uprooted numerous trees. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in the tornado was 115 to 125 mph.

Severe thunderstorms developed over western Oklahoma during the afternoon of the 25th, along a sharpening dry line, and moved east across Oklahoma during the evening, and across northwestern Arkansas during the early morning hours of the 26th. The atmosphere east of the dry line across Oklahoma and western Arkansas was moist and very unstable. Wind fields above the ground and deep layer wind shear strengthened during the afternoon through the early morning hours of the 26th, as an upper level disturbance translated into the Southern Plains. Additionally, low level wind shear increased late in the evening and continued very strong into the early morning hours of the 26th. These conditions were very supportive for the development of supercell thunderstorms. One of these supercells became particularly intense and long-tracked as it moved across northeastern Oklahoma and northwestern Arkansas, producing multiple tornadoes, several of which were strong. Large hail to baseball size and swaths of damaging straight-line wind also occurred, resulting in considerable damage.