Thunderstorm Wind in Hempstead County, Arkansas

Numerous trees downed along and near County Road 14 and County Road 306 east of Columbus.

Numerous supercell thunderstorms developed late in the evening on April 25th along a warm front extending from southern Oklahoma into western Arkansas, well ahead of an advancing cold front and dry line upstream over the Texas/Oklahoma panhandles. The environment farther downstream across Northeast Texas, Southwest Arkansas, and Northern Louisiana was very unstable and strongly sheared. This environment favored a continuation of severe thunderstorms and the potential for new supercell development. Nocturnal low-level cooling and capping were increasing, which generally kept the primary threat as large hail. However, given the persistent low-level shear, any surface-based thunderstorms also had the potential to produce some isolated damaging wind gusts. As a result, numerous reports of large and even very large hail were documented across Howard and Hempstead Counties in addition to damaging wind gusts.