Thunderstorm Wind — Howard, Arkansas

2025-09-24 · near County Line, Howard, Arkansas

Event narrative

A NWS Storm Survey confirmed a path of sporadic and very inconsistent straight-line wind damage in Howard County, AR between Milford and Nashville. The damage began northeast of Milford, north and west of Longview Road, where some large limbs were downed and one large hardwood tree was snapped. More uprooted trees were noted along Rock Creek to the west. There was a large break in the path before more damage was observed, beginning along Highway 355 between Cassady Lane and Mission Drive. Several sheds and outbuildings suffered partial to complere removal of their metal roofs, and several trees were uprooted, with the occasional snap being observed. Several cypress trees were snapped at a hog farm north of Mission Drive. Directly to the south, a chicken house lost several roof panels. More trees sustained large limb damage or were uprooted along Garner Loop and Waterloo Road, as well as Feemster Road. Maximum winds gusts were estimated to be between 90-95 mph.

Wider weather episode

A pre-frontal surface trough extended out in advance of a weak cool front over Western Arkansas and Southeast Oklahoma during the early morning hours of September 24th, with adequate forcing aloft associated with an upper level disturbance that ejected northeast ahead of an upper level trough entering the Southern Plains. A south-southwesterly low level flow yielded increased moisture and instability ahead of this surface and upper level disturbance, which focused an area of scattered strong to severe thunderstorm development during the early morning hours across portions of Southwest Arkansas. Damaging winds, large hail, and locally heavy rainfall accompanied these storms, with these storms later moving repeatedly over the same areas across portions of Southern Arkansas bordering Louisiana. Thus, areas of flash flooding was observed across portions of Columbia County before these storms weakened by mid-morning. As the cool front entered the region by early afternoon, strong heating contributed to increased instability, with large scale forcing along the front and ahead of the approaching upper trough yielding additional scattered strong thunderstorms containing heavy rainfall across portions of Southern Arkansas that had received substantial rains earlier that morning. Thus, flash flooding was observed across portions of Union County before the storms weakened and exited the region during the mid-afternoon hours.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (33.9177, -93.9374)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1291021. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.