EF2 Tornado — Nevada, Arkansas

2025-03-14 · near Cale, Nevada, Arkansas

Event narrative

An EF2 tornado with estimated maximum winds near 115 mph touched down late in the evening on March 14th, 2025, along County Road 2434 near the intersection with Highway 200 where damage to vegetation was noted, mainly in the form of large branches broken and a few uprooted trees. The tornado then continued northeast, causing more damage around the intersection of County Road 432 and County Road 45. Here, major loss of roof panels was noted on several small barns and outbuildings. The tornado then continued to track a few miles northeast, passing near Dills Mills and surrounding forested land before strengthening and passing along Highway 299, north of its intersection with County Road 47. This stretch of highway, between County Road 47 and County Road 423, featured extensive damage to trees, with numerous trees snapped and uprooted, some of which fell onto several homes. The tornado reached its peak intensity in this area, with winds speeds of around 115 mph. The tornado continued east/northeast across County Road 424 where more tree damage was found. The tornado's track would then end at White Oak Lake State Park where additional tree damage was found, causing all hiking trails in the park to be temporarily closed. The tornado may have continued briefly over White Oak Lake before lifting as it moved near the Ouachita County line.

Wider weather episode

Robust thunderstorm development began late in the evening on March 14th along a dryline from the Hot Springs region southward toward Texarkana. Upper air analysis suggested that low to mid-level winds were not quite as strong as compared to areas in Northern Arkansas. However, a strengthening low-level jet sampled by the KLZK (North Little Rock, Arkansas) and KSHV (Shreveport, Louisiana) radars both supported 0-1 km storm relative helicity (SRH) on the order of 200-300 m2/s2. Increasing low-level surface moisture and mixed layer CAPE were supportive of a more tornadic environment downstream of the developing convection. Discrete to semi-discrete supercells migrated into this air mass with damaging wind gusts and tornadoes eventually being reported across parts of Southwest Arkansas late into the evening hours.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (33.6427, -93.2567)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1249686. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.