EF2 tornado in Ashley County, Arkansas

The tornado tracked across rural southern Ashley County and snapped and uprooted hundreds of large hardwood and softwood trees. Forty two homes were damaged with approximately 15 homes that were heavily damaged or destroyed. The most intense damage was along Meridian Church Road in southwest Ashley County. Here, intense tree damage resulted in several cross roads being blocked by dozens of trees, and several mobile homes and houses were destroyed by the winds and fallen trees. This was the area rated EF2 with 130 mph winds. Over the last several miles of the track, the tornado was narrower and damage was primarily in the EF1 category.

During the afternoon and evening of April 9th and overnight hours of the 10th, an outbreak of severe storms and tornadoes occurred across the ArkLaMiss region and pushed east through northern Louisiana and into northern Mississippi. While the majority of the severe weather occurred out of the NWS Jackson, MS service area, several reports of large hail and wind damage were reported along with a few tornadoes. One of the strongest storms moved east across Ashley County Arkansas. This storm produced an EF2 tornado over the southwest and southern sections, and contained a swath of quarter to golf ball sized hail which occurred across the entire length of the county.

In looking at this event, which occurred over two days (April 9-10), in a regional view, this was likely the biggest severe weather and tornado outbreak during the spring of 2009. This event contained numerous strong tornadoes along with hundreds of large hail reports which stretched from the Southern Plains to several other southern States.