EF2 Tornado — Crawford, Arkansas

2018-11-30 · near Van Buren, Crawford, Arkansas

Event narrative

This tornado developed north of I-40 and just west of Lee Creek Road where homes sustained minor roof damage, trees were uprooted, and the roofs of several apartment complexes were damaged. The tornado moved northeast across Rena Road, damaging numerous homes, some severely, snapping three large wooden utility structures, and snapping and uprooting numerous trees. The tornado then crossed Uniontown Road and Fayetteville Road near Rena, and dissipated as it approached N Rudy Road. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in the tornado was 110 to 120 mph.

Wider weather episode

A strong low pressure trough translated from the southwestern United States into the Southern Plains on November 30th and December 1st. Warm and moist air had spread northward into northwestern Arkansas ahead of this system. Atmospheric instability became moderately strong during the afternoon and evening hours to the east of a cold front that was over western Oklahoma, and south of a stationary front that was located across northern Oklahoma into southern Missouri. As the strong storm system moved into the Southern Plains on the 30th, wind fields throughout the atmosphere increased substantially, which resulted in very strong deep-layer and low-level wind shear across northwestern Arkansas during the evening and overnight hours.

Thunderstorms developed during the evening hours of the 30th across central and eastern Oklahoma, and moved northeast across northwestern Arkansas during the late evening and overnight hours. Moderately strong atmospheric instability across the area combined with very strong wind shear to produce organized severe thunderstorms. A squall line moved rapidly across the area ahead of the surging cold front and produced several tornadoes and damaging wind gusts in northwest Arkansas.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (35.4601, -94.3993)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 791672. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.