Thunderstorm Wind — Pike, Arkansas

2021-05-04 · near Antoine, Pike, Arkansas

Event narrative

A Co-Op observer reported that they had multiple trees blown down from storms overnight.

Wider weather episode

The forecast called for a line of storms to come together in eastern Oklahoma, and then move quickly through northern and western Arkansas from the late evening of the 3rd into the wee hours of the 4th. Strong to damaging winds were the main concern. Isolated tornadoes and some hail were also expected.

It was certainly warm and unstable enough to fuel severe thunderstorms. High temperatures on the 3rd were well into the 80s to around 90 degrees in places. It was 88 degrees at Pine Bluff (Jefferson County), 89 degrees at Monticello (Drew County), and 90 degrees at Camden (Ouachita County).

Farther east, 60 to over 80 mph straight-line winds become the dominant hazard. Trees and/or power lines were taken down at Antoine (Pike County), Atkins (Pope County), Bismarck (Hot Spring County), Caddo Gap (Montgomery County), just north of Clarksville (Johnson County), Harrison (Boone County), Haskell (Saline County), Hot Springs (Garland County), Perryville (Perry County), and Pleasant Plains (Independence/White Counties).

A 71 mph gust was recorded at the airport at Hot Springs (Garland County). There were a couple of quarter size hail reports around Conway (Faulkner County). More than 60,000 utility customers lost power.

At Walnut Ridge (Lawrence County), wind gusts likely exceeded 90 mph. Some homes and retail buildings in and around town were affected, with a home improvement center and furniture store hit especially hard. About two miles northwest of town, grain bins were mangled. An outbuilding was dismantled near Manson (Randolph County).

Rain over the northern/western counties averaged a half inch to an inch. Local amounts were over two inches. In the twenty four hour period ending at 700 am CDT on the 4th, Morrilton (Conway County) got 2.09 inches of precipitation, with 2.02 inches just northeast of Damascus (Van Buren County), 1.33 inches at Hattieville (Conway County), 1.30 inches at Lead Hill (Boone County), 1.25 inches at Dardanelle (Yell County), 1.22 inches at Greers Ferry Dam (Cleburne County), 1.20 inches at Hardy (Sharp County), 1.19 inches at Subiaco (Logan County), and 1.16 inches at Mountain Home (Baxter County). The storms weakened toward daybreak, but this event was not quite done. Later in the afternoon, more storms bubbled up in southeast sections of the state, with a 60 mph gust estimated at Arkansas City (Desha County).

View location on OpenStreetMap → (34.0200, -93.4300)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 957047. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.