Tornado in Union County, Arkansas

A tornado briefly touched down just west of the Calion community near Ricker Road. Since this weak tornado lofted dust, grass, and dirt and no damage was found, this tornado will be rated an EF-Unknown.

An upper low pressure system drifted north over Southeast Oklahoma and Western Arkansas during the early morning hours of June 7th, with an upper level disturbance beneath the attendant trough enhancing an area of showers and thunderstorms over Southwest Arkansas. A moist and unstable air mass was in place, with weak steering also present which resulted in slow-moving storms producing locally heavy rainfall. Rainfall amounts of 3-5 inches fell from Southern Howard County across Northern Hempstead and Nevada Counties, which resulted in flash flooding over Northern Hempstead County where several roads were flooded and closed.

Another complex of showers and thunderstorms developed during the early morning hours of June 7th across Northwest Texas, and shifted east-southeast across North Texas throughout the morning, ahead of another shortwave trough that ejected east beneath an upper low pressure system that had begun to lift north across Southeast Oklahoma and Western Arkansas. The air mass ahead of this complex of storms across the Ark-La-Tex warmed considerably throughout the day, resulting in moderately unstable conditions within a marginally sheared environment. Thus, the storms intensified as they entered East Texas and remained severe and they progressed east across Southern Arkansas and North Louisiana. Trees and power lines were downed throughout the path of these storms, with a tornado briefly touching down just west of Calion, AR in Northeast Union County from a storm that developed ahead of the main line of storms. These storms exited Southwest Arkansas during the late afternoon hours.