EF1 Tornado — Miller, Arkansas

2024-07-08 · near Ft Lynn, Miller, Arkansas

Event narrative

An EF-1 tornado with estimated maximum winds near 95 mph touched down along the Red River just north of its confluence with the Sulphur River in Southeast Miller County south of County Road 12, and initially moved in a generally northerly direction along County Road 8. Most of the damage consisted of uprooted trees and downed limbs, but a metal barn near the tornado's start point sustained the loss of a few metal roof panels. The tornado then made a turn to the northwest and continued to snap trees as it crossed Miller County 9, Interstate 49, and Highway 71. The tornado tracked between Miller County 7 and Highway 71 just south of Fouke, snapping and uprooting additional trees. As the tornado began to occlude, it turned to the west and moved along Miller County 24 damaging additional trees before lifting just west of the intersection of Miller County 7 and 24.

Wider weather episode

Tropical Storm Beryl briefly strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane with 80 mph winds as it made landfall along the Southeast Texas coast near Matagorda Bay during the early morning hours of July 8th, and tracked north-northeast across East Texas and into Southwest Arkansas during the afternoon and evening hours. While Beryl weakened into a tropical storm over portions of Deep East Texas by mid-afternoon, very strong wind shear and helicity existed near and east of the center, contributing to the largest tornado outbreak in NWS Shreveport history, as well as with any landfalling tropical system. A total of 43 tornadoes were confirmed through NWS surveys across East Texas, North Louisiana, and Southwest Arkansas, before Beryl weakened into a depression by late afternoon over East Texas. As a part of this outbreak, six tornadoes touched down across portions of Southwest Arkansas.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (33.1427, -93.8521)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1195780. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.