EF2 tornado in Benton County, Arkansas

This segment is the fifth of six segments of this long-track tornado. The tornado severely damaged a permanent home, destroyed a barn, snapped or uprooted numerous trees, and snapped power poles. The maximum estimated wind speed in this segment of the tornado based on this damage was 125 mph.

The tornado moved northeast and back into Washington County, Arkansas.

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.