EF2 tornado in Ashley County, Arkansas

This tornado started just northeast of Hamburg along Ashley 70 Road and tracked roughly 20 miles to just east of Montrose in Chicot County. Thousands of trees were uprooted and snapped along the path along with numerous power lines and poles downed. Some of the heaviest damage was to a mobile home just off Ashley 129 Road. The home was thrown 15 to 20 feet and destroyed. Another mobile home was destroyed along Ashley 128 Road. The tornado then crossed Highway 82 near Ashley 301 Road. Power poles were broken here and a tractor shed was heavily damaged. From this point, the tornado mostly paralleled Highway 82 or tracked along it. Many power lines were down along with poles. Just east of Ashley 912 Road, one wooden high tension segment had the top broken out. In the Snyder community, some homes sustained roof damage and had trees down on them. North of Highway 82, near Horseshoe Lake, a lot of hardwood trees were heavily damaged and there were three segments of the wooden high tension poles and lines taken out. The tornado continued roughly along Highway 82 toward Montrose. The strongest core of the tornado remained north of the highway and downed two more wooden high tension segments before Montrose and two more just north of town to the west of Highway 165. In the town of Montrose, numerous trees were damaged along with many homes having some degree of roof damage or a handful more with a tree on the home. Just east of Montrose, near the Chicot County line and north of Highway 82, a metal high tension pole segment was taken down which supported the highest wind estimate of 130 mph. The tornado dissipated near County Road 293 on the north side of Highway 82. Maximum width was 1000 yards. Total path length was 20.51 miles. Max winds were 130 mph.

A warm, moist airmass was in place across the region ahead of a potent January weather system. Ample wind energy also was present, which not only helped bring damaging winds with severe storms but also allowed for strong gradient winds to occur ahead of an eastward advancing squall line. Severe weather occurred in the early morning hours of January 11th and continued across the ArkLaMiss region before noon, resulting in widespread wind damage as well as some tornadoes.