5/2/08 NOW: AR / TN / MS

[Jeff Piotrowski]

Tornadoic storm with very impressive shear over 150 MPH moving NE at 40 now entering Cleburne County. Tornado has been reported with this storm. This tornado is 45 miles North of Little Rock.

 

[Scott Taylor]

Mods will need to add many more states to the title soon, I imagine.

Jeff, I've been watching this cell like a hawk the past half hour. It's maintained an impressive couplet for a while now. Concern (for me) is that its on a course for Batesville... where my folks live.

 

[Scott Taylor]

Check that - it seems to have taken a slight jog to the NNE... will pass in between Concord and Prim AR.

 

[Heidi Farrar]

Very dangerous storm in central/north-central AR. TVS is down to 96 knts now, but this is the lowest it has been in the last 30+ minutes. I had a 152 knt TVS at about 8:30. This is following a similar path to the 2/5 monster, but is a little south and east of that track.

Live streaming video at KAIT-8, Jonesboro. They'll stay live as long as there are tornado warnings

http://www.kait8.com/global/video/p...et/D/1553/10930/v0001/reflector:41089&h1=24/7 Weather - KAIT-DT 8.2&at1=News&LiveURITitle=24/7%20Weather%20-%20KAIT-DT%208.2&LaunchPageAdTag=News&playerVersion=1&hostPageUrl=http%3A//www.kait8.com/Global/category.asp%3FC%3D4389%26nav%3Dmenu67_1&rnd=83255549

Edit: I will be heading out to the only place where I have a safe view to the south shortly, as the storm approaches Izard & Sharp Co.

 

[Karen Politte]

KARK report the following:

Tornado Confirmed, Homes & Businesses Damaged in Several Counties
Fairbanks in Faulkner Co.-- confirmed tornado
Bee Branch in Faulkner Co.-- homes and businesses damaged
Gravesville Community in Van Buren Co.-- power lines down, homes damaged, man being rescued from storm shelter
Bird Town in Conway Co.-- minor Damage
Entergy is reporting 6,000 customers without power. Harrison has 2,100 outages & 3,700 in Russellville & Danville.​

This was a bit of a surprise storm, I must admit. At least, it surprised me.

This storm seems to be part of a line that extends all along the prefrontal trough through central AR. The cold front proper seems to be located in extreme western AR ATTM.​

KP​

 

[Heidi Farrar]

TVS continues to show up, but is down to 53 knts now. Looks like that cell is getting sucked back into the squall line at the moment. Glad to see that, since this area of the state has already seen three federal disasters within the last 3 months.

 

[Charles Kuster]

New tornado warning just issued for Grant, Saline, Lonoke, and Pulaski counties in Arkansas. The storm now has a nice hook with strong rotation. The possible tornado appears to be about 15 miles southwest of Wrightsville, (as of 11:23 CDT) Arkansas and is moving to the northeast at about 45 mph.

Edit: NWS says storm is "likely producing a tornado." Thankfully it looks like this storm will pass to the south of Wrightsville, but is now moving at 55 mph!

This storm is now showing a very strong velocity couplet and nice hook. It appears to be about 5 miles SE of Wrightsville (as of 11:44 CDT). Local law enforcement has reported a tornado near Hensley, AR.

 

[Karen Politte]

Unfortunately I have very poor radar at work here (courtesy of NWS rather than GRLevelIII), but from what I can see of the couplets on both of the tornado-warned supercells south of Little Rock and west of Pine Bluff, they are more than capable of both having significant tornadoes on the ground.

Why oh why didn't I call in sick today, instead of 4/10??

KP

 

[Scott Taylor]

That tor-warned storm west of England right now still has excellent radar presentation and strong couplet.

 

[Heidi Farrar]

Two confirmed fatalities from this morning's tornado in Faulkner/Conway Co.

http://forecast.weather.gov/showsig...l_place1=Redfield+AR&product1=Tornado+Warning

As previous stated, those two tornado-warned storms in central AR are showing major shear -- 134 knts on the northern (near Wrightsville) storm, 111knts on the southern (near Sheridan) storm.

Edit: Here's another link form storm damage: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080502/ap_on_re_us/severe_weather

 

[Andrew Stoller]

Dennis Sherrod is on the storms in AR. he just had a thin rope tornado on his live chase cam.

http://live.severestudios.com/dennis.sherrod.asx

 

[Brandon Smith]

Dennis Sherrod is on the cell around Lonoke, AR. You could see a funnel which appeared to touch down several times, although it was tough to tell on the video feed. KATV in Little Rock was streaming the video also from Severestudios.com. The supposive tornado eventually roped out on film but rotation was still visible in the cloud base.

**Andrew beat me to it.

 

[David Wolfson]

Now on I-40E approaching Conway, AR (Hi, Karen!). Pleased to see that our extreme se AR target area isn't being trashed as the squall line decays per radar and vis. About fifteen minutes ago east of Russellville we passed under a southwest-northeast oriented mid-level cloud feature that I would tag as the cold front. Also pleased to see somewhat backed winds from 170-180 down there.

 

[Dave Gallaher]

add MS to thread title

Cell out in front of the line in Lafayette County, MS, is starting to show rotation and will arrive in Marshall and Benton Counties shortly. Looks to have wide access to moisture.

 

[Heidi Farrar]

East Arkansas is lit up with tornado warnings right now. KAIT is saying there are three different (seperate) reports of tornados on the ground in our viewing area (northeast AR). Live streaming video coverage continues:

http://www.kait8.com/global/video/popup/pop_player.asp?vt1=l&d1=0&ClipId1=mms%3A//a1553.l1093041089.c10930.n.lm.akamaistream.net/D/1553/10930/v0001/reflector%3A41089&LiveURI=mms%3A//a1553.l1093041089.c10930.n.lm.akamaistream.net/D/1553/10930/v0001/reflector%3A41089&h1=24/7[/url] Weather - KAIT-DT 8.2&at1=News&LiveURITitle=24/7%20Weather%20-%20KAIT-DT%208.2&LaunchPageAdTag=News&playerVersion=1&hostPageUrl=http%3A//www.kait8.com/Global/category.asp%3FC%3D4389%26nav%3Dmenu67_1&rnd=83255549

The Mississippi Co. storm and the one along I-40 are the most intense right now.