EF1 Tornado — Washington, Arkansas

2025-06-18 · near West Fork, Washington, Arkansas

Event narrative

This tornado developed east of Highway 71, along Mineral Springs Road. It moved east along Mineral Springs Road, severely damaging a couple outbuildings, uprooting multiple trees, and snapping numerous large tree limbs. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in the tornado was 90 to 100 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 → (35.9390, -94.1610)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1279702. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.