Thunderstorm Wind — Izard, Arkansas

2019-06-23 · near Calico Rock, Izard, Arkansas

Event narrative

A tree was blown down on a vehicle and another tree was blown down causing damage to property. Trees were blown down in various locations around Calico Rock.

Wider weather episode

On the 23rd, the focus was on a couple of big thunderstorm clusters. The first cluster hammered areas north and west of Little Rock (Pulaski County) during the early morning hours, and it had a little of everything. Two weak tornadoes were spawned to the southeast of Paris (Logan County). The tornadoes uprooted or snapped trees, with one of the trees falling through a house. A mobile home roof and porch were also damaged. At Russellville (Pope County), thunderstorm gusts reached an estimated 90 mph at Arkansas Tech. Winds this strong tore up an outfield wall and first base dugout at a baseball field.

There was a lot of rain and reports of flash flooding. Creeks and small streams were on the rise, and roads were under water. At Waldron (Scott County), Highways 28 and 71 were closed. Culverts were washed out along Highway 80 southwest of Danville (Yell County). Closer to town, there was plenty of standing water at the airport. County roads were impassible or washed out around Ozone (Johnson County) and Parthenon (Newton County).

The first round of storms was followed quickly by another round in the late morning and afternoon hours. Between 1200 pm and 300 pm CDT, trees and/or power lines were toppled at Calico Rock (Izard County), Clarkridge (Baxter County), Evening Shade (Sharp County), Harmony (Johnson County), Melbourne (Izard County), Pocahontas (Randolph County), north of Strawberry (Lawrence County), Swifton (Jackson County), and Toad Suck (Perry County). There were instances of trees on homes, on vehicles, and blocking roads. A 61 mph wind gust was measured at Walnut Ridge (Lawrence County), with a 60 mph gust estimated at Bradford (White County).

More than a month's worth of rain fell in portions of northern and western Arkansas in the forty eight hour period ending at 700 am CDT on the 24th. Nine miles west of Waldron (Scott County). One rain gauge collected 11.35 inches of precipitation! Abbott (Scott County) had 8.10 inches, with 7.50 inches at Devils Knob (Johnson County), 7.38 inches at Nunley (Polk County), and 6.20 inches at Jasper (Newton County).

As the month came to a close, a storm system aloft visited from Missouri on the 26th. Cooler air overhead associated with the system moved over much warmer conditions near the ground. This agitated the atmosphere, and hit and miss thunderstorms flared up across the north.

Storms were mostly non-severe, but there was a report of golf ball size hail just northwest of Cherokee Village (Sharp County). A low water crossing was flooded near Compton (Newton County).

View location on OpenStreetMap → (36.1300, -92.1300)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 835982. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.