EF1 Tornado — Benton, Arkansas

2025-06-18 · near Highfill, Benton, Arkansas

Event narrative

This tornado developed just west of True Road, south of Daniels Road, where trees were uprooted. It moved northeast, severely damaging the northern portion of five chicken houses, and then crossed Daniels Road into a subdivision of homes. Several homes in the southeast section of this subdivision received significant structural damage to their roofs, and numerous others received minor damage to their roofs. The tornado continued to move east-northeast after it crossed Mason Valley Road, and uprooted trees near the intersection of Vaughn Road and Wagner Road, before dissipating. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in the tornado was 95 to 105 mph.

Wider weather episode

Thunderstorms developed over north central and northwestern Oklahoma during the early evening of the 17th, near an outflow boundary from earlier thunderstorms, and north of a developing warm front that stretched across the area. The atmosphere ahead of the thunderstorms over eastern Oklahoma and northwestern Arkansas had become very unstable. The strong instability combined with strong wind fields and strong wind shear associated with an intense upper level disturbance moving through the region, resulted in a few supercells that evolved into a severe squall line that moved into northwestern Arkansas during the late evening of the 17th, and early morning hours of the 18th. Damaging wind and a several tornadoes occurred as the storms moved through the area.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (36.3060, -94.3520)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1279700. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.