EF1 tornado in Chicot County, Arkansas

This tornado began on the southeast side of the Lake Village Municipal Airport on Airport Road where it rolled and almost destroyed a manufactured home. It is at Airport Road where one injury was reported due to a tree falling on a home. It then moved east-northeast to US Highway 278, breaking 8 to 10 wooden electrical poles. It moved to the northeast of the Lake Village community where it continued to knock down wooden electrical poles and began to uproot and snap large branches from softwood trees along North Lakeshore Drive and along the shore of Lake Chicot. The Lake Village Country Club along North Lakeshore Drive took damage to its roof on the backside. In addition, on the backside of the Country Club, a nearby forested area had multiple snapped large hardwood tree limbs in addition to the tin roof of a metal storage building peeled completely off. Also along North Lakeshore Drive, multiple trees were uprooted and snapped at a trailer park, where one trailer was blown across the street to near the bottom of Lake Chicot. As the tornado continued to track northeast, it moved along AR Highway 144, uprooting trees and snapping large hardwood limbs. Five electrical power poles were downed along Highway 144, as well as another trailer getting rolled to near the bottom of Lake Chicot. The tornado continued to snap large limbs and uproot hardwood trees as it moved across Pecan Ridge Drive. The tornado continued to just north of Levee Road where it lifted, but not before a few uprooting hardwood trees and snapping small to medium sized limbs. It is important to note that a large swath of severe wind speeds resulted in widespread downed trees on Lakehall Road, Sunnyside Road, Stuart Island Road and at the Lake Chicot State Park. Several of these trees fell on power lines causing outages to a large portion of the Lake Village community. This tornado then continued east-northeast across the MS River to across Lake Ferguson in Washington County, where the second floor was blown off of a lake house on South Ferguson Road. In addition, a high concentration of snapped and uprooted hardwood trees was noted on the backside of the lakehouse on South Ferguson Road, thus resulting in the upgraded EF-2 rating. It continued to move east to Highway 1 North where it snapped small to large hardwood tree limbs before dissipating. Estimated peak wind with this tornado was 127 mph. Max width was 850 yards. Total path length was 17.81 miles.

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.