Hail — Izard, Arkansas

2020-04-08 · near Horseshoe Bend, Izard, Arkansas

Event narrative

Golf ball size hail was reported in Horshoe Bend.

Wider weather episode

On the 8th as a cold front headed this way from Canada. It was a very warm afternoon, with high temperatures in the 80s to lower 90s. It was 92 degrees at Harrison (Boone County) and Russellville (Pope County), and 91 degrees at Mena (Polk County), and Mountain Home (Baxter County). Normal highs are in the upper 60s to mid 70s.

The heat and increasing moisture made the atmosphere extremely unstable. However, thunderstorms had some difficulty developing. Data acquired from a balloon launch by the National Weather Service at the North Little Rock Airport (Pulaski County) revealed warming aloft (an inversion) at 100 pm CDT. Readings went from 68 degrees at 2000 feet to 75 degrees at 2500 feet. This tended to cap the lower levels of the atmosphere, and prevented storms from taking off. For most of the afternoon, there were few clouds.

Capping was weakest in the northeast, and this is where isolated storms finally went haywire by 500 pm CDT. One storm in particular peaked the interest of radar operators and kept them busy for several hours. The storm unleashed baseball size hail at Strawberry (Lawrence County), and golf balls at Horseshoe Bend (Izard County), Lynn (Lawrence County), and Ravenden (Lawrence County).

The biggest event of month happened on the 12th (Easter) and 13th. There were more than 1,000 reports of wind damage and at least 130 tornadoes from Texas to the Carolinas. Sadly, there were three dozen casualties.

We had to deal with a line of nasty thunderstorms. The line had bowing segments, indicating that powerful winds were driving the storms forward and causing them to bulge outward. Severe Thunderstorm Warnings were first issued between 530 pm and 600 pm CDT, and continued for five hours until the storms moved east of the Mississippi River. The storms produced damaging wind gusts from 60 to more than 80 mph, and knocked out power to at least 150,000 utility customers.

There were numerous reports of trees and power lines downed, with trees blocking roads in some cases. Trees fell on residences, resulting in a death at White Hall (Jefferson County) and an injury at Glen Rose (Hot Spring County). Outbuildings and sheds were damaged or destroyed. A roof was blown off of a poultry farm on Highway 154 north of Danville (Yell County). A 68 mph gust was measured at Petit Jean State Park (Conway County).

Much of Arkansas received one to more than three inches of rain, with the heaviest amounts over central and southern sections of the state. Monticello (Drew County) had an estimated 3.73 inches of precipitation on the 12th, breaking a daily record that stood since 1877.

This was one of the more significant downpours of the month, and contributed to largely above average rainfall totals. Surpluses of liquid in April were more than an inch at Little Rock (Pulaski County), and Pine Bluff (Jefferson County).

View location on OpenStreetMap → (36.2200, -91.7400)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 882416. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.