EF1 tornado in Sevier County, Arkansas

During the early morning hours of May 24th, an EF-1 tornado with maximum winds estimated at 110 mph, first touched down on Beacon Hill Road in rural Central Sevier County, Arkansas between the towns of De Queen and Lockesburg in association with a quasi-linear convective system. It continued to move northeastward for 4 to 5 miles, crossing US Highway 71 just south of the US Hwy 70 intersection, then lifting along Sevier County Road 328. Damage consisted mostly of uprooted and snapped trees and power lines, with structural damage to a few outbuildings and sheds. A few residences were damaged due to falling trees or branches. Peak intensity of the tornado was estimated as the tornado crossed Farm-to-Market Road 15 south of the community of Geneva. There, many trees where snapped, a residence was damaged, and a chicken house had roof panels removed. Many areas northeast of this location were hard to access by the NWS survey team, but the team found enough evidence to conclude the tornado continued to the northeast for several more miles before lifting.

Strong to severe thunderstorms developed along the Middle Red River Valley during the early morning hours on May 24th. These thunderstorms intensified in vicinity of deeper theta-e advection via the low-level jet on the southern fringe of a residual cold pool. The convective environment supported increasing storm organization, with effective shear around 50 knots. Strong to severe thunderstorm potential accompanied the more discrete updrafts that managed to develop as convection became fairly well-organized, aided by persistent low-level warm advection within a thermodynamic environment characteristic of 2000 to 3000 J/kg mixed-layer CAPE. As a result, an isolated tornado occurred in Sevier County during the pre-dawn hours.

Later in the day, a cluster of strong to severe thunderstorms developed across the same general area during the late afternoon through the evening hours. Ahead of this convection, surface dewpoints were in the middle to upper 70s while MLCAPE values ranged from the 3000 to 4000 J/kg range, as observed by nearby 00Z soundings. In addition, 0-6 km shear was roughly 45 knots with 0-3 km storm-relative helicity near 225 m2/s2. This near storm environment also had 700-500 mb lapse rates near 7.5 C/km, supportive of the potential for supercells containing large hail and damaging wind gusts. As a result, several reports of damaging wind gusts were received across Southwest Arkansas along with one hail report in Union County.