EF2 Tornado — Little River, Arkansas

2014-10-13 · near Comet, Little River, Arkansas

Event narrative

A tornado quickly spun up, embedded in a squall line across Little River County in Southwest Arkansas. A National Weather Service Storm Survey crew determined that an EF-2 tornado touched down 9 miles west of Ashdown, Arkansas near the Arden community. The tornado touched down just south of Hwy. 32 where it snapped and uprooted numerous trees. The tornado then crossed Hwy. 32 where it completely destroyed a mobile home with 5 family members inside. A 33 year old male was killed and a 34 year old female was critically injured after being thrown from the mobile home. Three children, a 16 year old female, an 11 year old male and a 6 year old male were injured when they were trapped in the debris. The tornado also damaged another nearby mobile home as it quickly moved northeast, lifting it as it crossed CR. 16.

Wider weather episode

An upper level trough moved quickly into the Central and Southern Plains providing the necessary lift for scattered strong to severe thunderstorms across Northwest Texas and Western Oklahoma during the evening hours of Sunday, Oct. 12th. At the surface, a warm front was rapidly moving northward across East Texas and North Louisiana with low level moisture returning quickly in the wake of the northward moving warm front. A cold front in association with the upper level trough was rapidly moving eastward through Western Oklahoma and Texas. Overnight across Southeast Oklahoma, Southwest Arkansas, Northeast Texas and Northwest Louisiana, moderate instability was in place with increasing low and mid-level shear as the upper trough approached from the west. Storms eventually erupted ahead of the cold front across Central Oklahoma and Northern Texas, maturing into a squall line as it approached the region during the predawn hours of Monday, Oct. 13th. As the squall line traversed through the region, widespread wind damage was reported associated with straight line winds. Several short track, intense tornadoes developed along the leading edge of the squall line as well across portions of Northeast Texas, Southwest Arkansas and Northern Louisiana. The storms finally exited the region during the afternoon hours of Oct. 13th. Post-event Storm Surveys determined that 6 tornadoes occurred with this severe weather outbreak, one of which produced 1 fatality and 4 injuries in Little River County, Arkansas. Another tornado produced widespread damage across Ouachita Parish in Monroe, Louisiana.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (33.6617, -94.2303)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 543173. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.