The National Weather Service confirmed Sunday that four tornadoes touched down when a powerful storm ripped through the state Friday night and Saturday morning.
Weather service meteorologist Erik Green said storm surveys were still going on Sunday evening so he didn't rule out the possibility that more tornado tracks might be discovered.
"We're two days removed from the event and we're still getting people sending us damage reports," Green said.
The weather service office said the highest recorded straight-line wind gusts occurred early Saturday morning, with peak wind speeds of 71 miles per hour recorded at the University of Arkansas at Monticello, and peak wind speeds of 74 mph recorded in northeast Monroe County about three miles northeast of Fargo.
Rainfall amounts, according to the agency, averaged from 2 to 4 inches over most of the state, with west Arkansas receiving 4 to 6 inches, and some parts of the Little Rock area receiving in excess of four inches.
The strongest of the four confirmed tornadoes occurred shortly before 8 p.m. Friday in the area of Scranton. Tobi Miller, director of the Logan County emergency management office, said a confirmed EF2 tornado started at Mount Magazine and ended in Scranton, traveling at 55 mph with wind speeds of up to 125 mph.
At least nine homes were damaged, five of which were destroyed, according to county officials. Two sets of chicken houses also were destroyed, Miller said.
The American Red Cross was contacted to assist the displaced families, Logan County Sheriff Jason Massey said.
In Lonoke County, an EF1 tornado also damaged property.
A third tornado, which Green described as a "brief EF1," touched down in Drew County near Jerome.
The National Weather Service office in Tulsa confirmed a fourth tornado track in Franklin County. Meteorologist Ed Calianese confirmed that the twister, rated EF1 with winds between 95 and 105 mph, touched down about three miles east-southeast of Cecil and dissipated about 3.5 miles south of Ozark.
The tornado, which was on the ground for 3.9 miles with a maximum path width of 400 yards, damaged a home, destroyed several outbuildings, uprooted trees and snapped a number of power poles, Calianese said.
The rainfall and high winds from the storm caused dangerous conditions across Arkansas. Sections of highways across the state had to be closed because of high water, according to the Department of Transportation, and there were widespread reports of downed power lines.
By Sunday evening, five highways were still closed due to high water, according to the Department of Transportation website.
A section of Arkansas 364 was closed between Vanndale and U.S. 49 in Cross County. In Jackson County, Arkansas 226 east of Swifton and Arkansas 224 south of Swifton were both closed Sunday evening. Arkansas 166 in Randolph County between Sparrow Road and Engleberg Road was closed. Arkansas 282 in Crawford County at Frog Bayou was closed.
"Most of these are short-lived events and a lot of them are what we call the usual suspects," said Danny Straessle, spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Transportation. "These are areas that we know will over-top with water when we have a heavy rain event."
Straessle cautioned that even after the initial waters recede some roads may still be prone to flooding as receding waters move downstream.
"You've got really two events in one," he said. "The first one is the actual event which happened Friday night with all the rain we had. Of course, that's flash flooding and that causes water over the road. The other event is a little bit later, and we may see some of this [Monday]. All of that water has to drain somewhere and as it starts to drain it migrates through whatever channel or tributary or creek that it's in. Those empty into bigger ones and the water levels start to rise so you could see some residual downstream closings as the water drains. So it's not a matter of being out of the woods yet."
Green said a high pressure system moving in from the west has brought in calmer, more seasonable weather for at least the next couple of days.
"At least during the beginning of the week, we'll be much more settled," he said. "We've got some rain chances starting to creep in from the south, maybe by the middle of the week, Tuesday at the earliest, but we'll definitely be more settled for a few days here."
Green said temperatures will remain more seasonable for a couple of days but should begin to increase by midweek as rain chances increase and remain well above average through the end of the week before cooling down again over the weekend.
According to the Entergy Arkansas website, by 4:45 p.m. Sunday, approximately 1,115 restoration workers, scouts and vegetation personnel were working to restore power to customers throughout the state. As of noon Sunday, the website said, power outages had been reduced from a peak of more than 42,800 to 10,495.
According to the website, by Sunday evening assessment crews had identified at least 318 broken power poles and 380 spans of wire. The electric utility estimated that 95% of affected customers would be restored by tonight.
At 5 p.m. Sunday, First Electric Cooperative's website showed three power outage areas in Sherwood, Cabot and Perryville.
State Desk on 01/13/2020