EF3 Tornado — Franklin, Arkansas

2011-05-24 · near Denning, Franklin, Arkansas

Event narrative

This is the fifth of six segments of this tornado. The tornado crossed the Arkansas River, moving back into Franklin County from Logan County. The tornado crossed Carbon Plant Road and W Creek Road, destroying a mobile home and killing another person. It continued northeast across the town of Denning where it destroyed numerous permanent homes and mobile homes. At least 10 injuries occurred in Denning as the mile-wide tornado moved through the town. Several of these injuries were serious or critical and one of the victims died from her injuries on June 14th. She was in one of the many mobile homes that were destroyed in town. Ten 100-foot metal power poles were bent over at the ground by the tornado and many other power poles were snapped throughout the Denning area. Many large trees were also snapped or uprooted. Maximum estimated wind speed in this segment of the tornado based on this damage was about 145 mph.

The tornado moved northeast from Denning and crossed Highway 64, severely damaging the roof of a permanent home and snapping or uprooting numerous trees. The tornado continued into Johnson County, Arkansas.

Wider weather episode

Severe thunderstorms developed along a dry line over central Oklahoma during the afternoon hours. Very unstable air and strong wind shear east of the dry line supported supercell thunderstorm structures, which persisted as the storms moved into northwestern Arkansas late in the evening. These severe storms produced tornadoes, large hail, and damaging downburst wind across portions of northwestern Arkansas. One of the tornadoes was especially intense, resulting in considerable damage to several towns as well as three fatalities in Franklin County.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (35.4065, -93.7968)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 313010. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.