EF1 tornado in Crawford County, Arkansas

This tornado developed just north of Rudy, where trees were uprooted on Whitson Drive to the west of Highway 282. The tornado moved east-northeast uprooting more trees and destroying barns along Highway 282. Trees were uprooted as the tornado crossed Peach Drive, with extensive tree damage as it approached I-49 on Cozy Cove and Lancaster Road. Trees were uprooted on Gregory Chapel Road. Extensive tree and power pole damage occurred along Highway 71 near Winn Mountain Road and Cain Road. The tornado dissipated after crossing Old Turner Road, to the south of Highway 348, where barns were destroyed and trees were uprooted. Based on this damage, maximum estimated wind in the tornado was 90 to 100 mph.

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.