EF3 Tornado — Washington, Arkansas

2010-12-31 · near Cincinnati, Washington, Arkansas

Event narrative

This segment is the second of six segments of this long-track tornado. The tornado moved into Washington County snapping numerous trees as it approached the town of Cincinnati. In Cincinnati, the tornado destroyed several permanent homes, destroyed the volunteer fire station, destroyed a mobile home, damaged several other permanent homes, snapped or uprooted numerous trees, snapped numerous power poles, and destroyed barns and outbuildings. Two people were killed in the mobile home that was destroyed and a third person was killed either in or near a barn while he was tending to his cattle. At least seven injuries also occurred. The tornado was about 300 yards wide when it went through town. The maximum estimated wind speed in the tornado based on this damage was 140 mph.

The tornado continued to move rapidly northeastward and widened to about 500 yards northeast of Cincinnati. Several permanent homes were severely damaged, several mobile homes were destroyed, at least four chicken houses were destroyed, outbuildings were destroyed, numerous trees were snapped or uprooted, and power poles were snapped. A woman in one of the mobile homes that was destroyed was transported to a hospital with serious injuries. She later died from those injuries on January 4th.

The tornado continued into Benton County, Arkansas.

Wider weather episode

Unseasonably warm and moist air spread into northwestern Arkansas ahead of a cold front. Scattered thunderstorms developed in the late evening and early morning hours ahead of the cold front as a weak upper level disturbance passed through the region. Large hail and damaging wind gusts occurred with some of those storms. Another round of storms developed on the cold front over eastern Oklahoma as it pushed into the area. Weak to moderate instability combined with very strong low level wind shear created an environment that supported supercell thunderstorm structures. Several supercells developed resulting in large hail and damaging wind gusts in the hours just before and after sunrise on the 31st. One of these supercells produced a long-track, strong tornado that killed four people in and near the town of Cincinnati in Washington County. Debris was transported by the tornado into northern Benton County and was reported in Bella Vista and Pea Ridge. The Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport (XNA) was closed for three hours to remove the debris from the flight line. Another supercell produced a short-lived, weak tornado in Carroll County that moved into Missouri.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (36.0176, -94.5374)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 267533. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.