Thunderstorm Wind in Little River County, Arkansas

A NWS Survey Team concluded that a large swath of straight line winds with estimated wind gusts between 80-90 mph began in the Lime Rock Hill area just south of Foreman, and continued into the Gum Flats to the northeast side of Foreman. The damage path began along Highway 108 West between South 1st Street and South Bell Street where numerous large trees were uprooted or snapped. Sporadic damage continued northeastward, crossing Highway 41 South, with additional damage noted along Highway 108 east of Foreman across County Road 51 North to County Road 153. The vast majority of the tree damage along this path was oriented to the northeast. The maximum path width of these straight line winds was approximately 650 yards.

A weak cold front slowly advanced southeast into portions of Northeast Texas, Southeast Oklahoma, into Western Arkansas and Southern Missouri on April 30th, and focused a warm, very moist, and unstable air mass in place across much of East Texas, North Louisiana, and Southwest Arkansas during the afternoon through the evening hours. Meanwhile, an upper low pressure area ejected northeast from the Desert Southwest into the Texas Panhandle, with deep southwest flow aloft yielding weak disturbances along the front to induce large scale forcing across much of East Texas and Southwest Arkansas. As a result, a complex of strong to severe thunderstorms developed and spread into areas along and to the southeast of the front, yielding instances of damaging winds across portions of Southwest Arkansas during the afternoon. An isolated tornado was also spawned just west of Lockesburg in Sevier County, before these storms gradually exited the region by early evening.