EF2 tornado in Clay County, Arkansas

This tornado touched down in Independence County and moved northeast across southern Sharp County where it reached a peak strength of EF-3 with peak winds of 165 mph in Cave City. The tornado then tracked across northwest Lawrence County and southeast Randolph County before exiting through the Reyno community and entering Clay County. A power pole was destroyed on County Road 112 and six empty grain bins were destroyed. The tornado weakened as it moved northeast, producing scattered tree damage as it crossed County Roads 110 and 125. A center irrigation pivot was overturned and several power poles were snapped where the tornado crossed Highway 67, approximately one mile west of the Corning Municipal Airport. An outbuilding was damaged near Highway 67, spreading metal debris in the field north of the airport. The damage became very sporadic from this point with only minor tree damage and some siding pulled off an outbuilding. The tornado lifted near the intersection of County Roads 147 and 154. Peak winds in Clay County were estimated at 120 mph.

An upper low over the Central Plains moved into the Upper Mississippi Valley during the evening hours of Friday, March 14, 2025. Increasing moisture advection ahead of an approaching cold front lifted dewpoints into the low to mid 60s. This coupled with increasing height falls and a mid-level 80 knot jet rotating around the main upper low supported severe thunderstorm development. Large looping hodographs, MLCAPE values over 2000 J/kg, 60 knots of bulk shear, and 0-1 km SRH values between 250 and 350 m2/s2 supported an all hazards threat. Storm mode during the overnight hours was supercellular with large hail, damaging winds and several tornadoes, a few of which were strong (EF2+), mainly across northeast Arkansas, the Missouri Bootheel and northeast Mississippi.

The main upper low lifted into the western Great Lakes Region by early Saturday morning, March 15, 2025. The cold front stalled just to the west of the Mississippi River. Simultaneously, a neutrally-tilted longwave trough moved across the Southern Plains and pushed a 100 knot mid-level jet into the region. This placed West Tennessee and north Mississippi beneath the left exit region of the jet with widespread lift and diffluence available. As a result, showers and thunderstorms rapidly redeveloped across north Mississippi and parts of West Tennessee Saturday morning. Storms quickly formed into a line that slowly moved east. The line of storms produced damaging winds, large hail and a weak tornado Saturday morning. The airmass ahead of the line became even more favorable for severe storms by Saturday afternoon with MLCAPE values increasing to 1500 J/kg and 0-1km SRH values reaching 300 m2/s2 as a surface low moving along the cold front and backed surface winds across northeast Mississippi. Discrete supercells formed ahead of the line during the afternoon producing a couple of weak tornadoes and damaging winds over parts of northeast Missisisppi. Flash flooding was also common due to the slow moving nature of the system.