Strong Wind — Sevier, Arkansas

2024-05-05 · Sevier, Arkansas

Event narrative

A brief landspout tornado was captured on video briefly touching down along Red Colony Road several miles southeast of Lockesburg, where it snapped small branches and tore off a small portion of the roof of a poorly constructed detached exterior carport. A few shingles were also removed from the the roof of an adjacent single family home. The landspout then crossed a hay meadow and snapped a small limb off of a hardwood tree before lifting along TJ King Road.

Wider weather episode

Clearing in the wake of earlier convection on May 5th allowed for air mass recovery across North Louisiana and South Arkansas. Persistent low-level theta-e advection in advance of a weak surface low across Northeast Texas enabled storm redevelopment later in the afternoon, within an effective warm frontal zone. With some mid-level drying in the wake of an ejecting shortwave trough across Arkansas, thunderstorm intensity was uncertain. However, increasing moisture and instability along with relatively favorable low-level shear was sufficient to support brief tornado potential with any longer-lived thunderstorms late in the afternoon into early evening. One such thunderstorm produced a brief landspout tornado in Sevier County Arkansas where some minor damage was observed.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1187962. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.