Arkansas Thunderstorms

April 2, 2006, 3:25 pm
Posted by Brian Peters in Severe Weather
Rating: 0/5   Votes : 0

Just watching the weather this afternoon and the events in Arkansas have been quite interesting. On the 12Z sounding and again at 18Z there was a substantial capping inversion just below 850 millibars. Cap strength was pretty healthy, but as the atmosphere has modified, thunderstorms have been able to break through the cap. That is clearly seen on satellite and radar as these images show.

Also, CAPE values from the latest NGM run at 18Z are 2750 up through about 03Z.

Individual Thunderstorms in Arkansas
Note the individual thunderstorms that have developed over Arkansas.

Thunderstorms in Arkansas as seen by radar
Individual thunderstorms over Arkansas as seen by radar from Little Rock WSR-88D.

It would appear, however, that the main threat from these supercells will be hail and/or damaging wind. The wind profile is fairly uniform in direction from the ground up. There is a significant increase in the wind speed, but without directional shear, I don't think we'll see any tornado development. Of course, should the surface wind come around to the south or southeast in the lowest 9 thousand feet or so, that would change. But there doesn't appear to be any feature that will cause that.

Any way, just an interesting situation over there. Lots of severe thunderstorm warnings so far from the NWS in North Little Rock in spite of the tornado watch.

Always interesting to watch the weather - especially when the action is in someone else's back yard.

-Brian-

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Posted by Josh  
on April 2, 2006, 3:58 pm
New Tornado watch number 134 for SOUTHEAST ARKANSAS, NORTHERN MISSISSIPPI, and WESTERN TENNESSEE until 440PM:

http://spc.noaa.gov/products/watch/ww0134.html

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Posted by John T.  
on April 2, 2006, 4:08 pm
Makes you wonder when our time will be .... Or could this be another spring for us with little or hardly no severe wx action?

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Posted by Mary Stanley  
on April 2, 2006, 4:37 pm
I'm near Memphis right now - Southaven, to be precise. We had a nice thunderstorm about 5 hours ago, beautiful mamatus clouds on the southwestern corner of the storm as it moved toward western TN. Partly cloudy now, winds from the SW at sustained 15-20 mph as measured by the famous TREE SWAY METHOD! :)

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Posted by Josh  
on April 2, 2006, 4:44 pm
I meant until 12:00AM CST

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Posted by John T.  
on April 2, 2006, 4:50 pm
Hey Mark that was good . That method works almost every time ahh . Because if those trees , depending on how big , start to go then ...... .

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Posted by  
on April 2, 2006, 5:02 pm
Reports coming out of Arkansas include hail to four and a quarter inches at places like Mountain Home in Baxter where the hail reportedly caused structural damage and Joy in White County reported by the Fire Department. The White County reports are with two thunderstorms that have been moving steadily eastward, though the second cell actually showed some right turning for several volume scans.

Interesting that these supercells have retained their isolated characteristic for much of the afternoon since forming.

-Brian-

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Posted by   www
on April 2, 2006, 5:12 pm
Birmingham Ties a High of 84F

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Posted by  
on April 2, 2006, 5:15 pm
One cell north of Jonesboro Arkansas must have dropped at least on tornado .

...A TORNADO EMERGENCY IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 615 PM CDT FOR GREENE
COUNTY...

THIS IS AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS AND LIFE THREATENING SITUATION. THIS
STORM HAS A HISTORY OF PRODUCING DESTRUCTIVE TORNADOES. IF YOU ARE
IN THE PATH OF THIS TORNADO...TAKE COVER IMMEDIATELY

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Posted by Mary Stanley  
on April 2, 2006, 5:17 pm
That's the cell that the local mets have been talking about the most.

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Posted by   www
on April 2, 2006, 5:23 pm
Preliminary reports of 4.25'' hail in AR and MO. WOW that’s so cool to see lets hope it does not kill anyone. TWC reports one death so far.

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Posted by  
on April 3, 2006, 9:51 am
Holy smokes!!! I've seen softball sized before, which I guess is about that size. I was in a car when that tornado/hail was present, and I wasn't about to get out -- would have been beaten to death. I hope I NEVER see that again -- yikes!

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Posted by   www
on April 2, 2006, 5:25 pm
corrected 'www'

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Posted by Mary Stanley  
on April 2, 2006, 5:34 pm
I'm so impressed! The NBC affiliate here is on long-form coverage (at least for now). They've got a met on the computer and a met on the air--

ABC33/40, YOU'VE STARTED A WEATHERCASTING REVOLUTION! :D

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Posted by Mary Stanley  
on April 2, 2006, 5:43 pm
They're doing an admirable job with education, too--explaining how to interpret the SRV, talking about where on a storm a tornado is more likely to be, why tornadoes frequently don't form in the very middle of the strongest precipitation, explaining shear markers-doing a good job all in all.

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Posted by  
on April 2, 2006, 7:16 pm
Hey Kenny I don't know about BHM but I hit 85.0. So I guess Alabaster had a record high just wishfull thinking I know the records are kept at BHM.

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Posted by Josh  
on April 2, 2006, 7:23 pm
New Day 1 Convective Outlook:

http://spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/day1otlk.html

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Posted by   www
on April 2, 2006, 7:39 pm
Michael, the high at my place was 85.2 (F) today.

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