EF1 Tornado — Lafayette, Arkansas

2025-04-02 · near Lake Erling, Lafayette, Arkansas

Event narrative

A brief EF-1 tornado with estimated maximum winds near 95 mph touched down over a wooded area just west of Highway 53 and just south of Lafayette Road 249, where multiple trees were uprooted. This tornado crossed Highway 53 and snapped/uprooted several additional trees and tree tops before lifting.

Wider weather episode

A warm and unstable air mass was in place across the Ark-La-Tex region on April 2nd ahead of an approaching cold front. With MLCAPE values near 2000 J/kg, along with strong effective bulk shear and steep mid-level lapse rates, isolated strong to severe thunderstorms rapidly developed and intensified along the front as it moved along the Interstate 30 corridor of Southwest Arkansas during the afternoon and evening hours. Multiple hazards were reported with these storms, which included two separate EF-1 tornadoes in Lafayette County along with a strong downburst in Columbia County.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (33.1762, -93.5273)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1255659. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.