LATEST 5:35 P.M.
The National Weather Service has issued a tornado watch for several counties in Northwest Arkansas.
Northwest Arkansas counties included with the watch are Benton, Washington, Carroll, Crawford, Madison, Johnson, Sebastian, Boone, Newton, Franklin, Logan and Scott counties.
The watch expires at 1 a.m. Tuesday.
Conditions remain favorable for significant severe weather including the potential for tornadoes and damaging winds, a report from the service added. The risk of storms will continue into the evening hours and could spread eastward through western Arkansas.
EARLIER 12:05 P.M.
Several counties in Northwest Arkansas are under a flash flood watch until Tuesday evening, according to a report from the National Weather Service.
Benton, Carroll, Washington and Madison counties are included in that watch.
Thunderstorms are expected to blossom across eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas this afternoon as a potent storm system begins to pivot out of the southwest and into the plains, the report said. Conditions are ripe for some thunderstorms that develop to become supercellular with a few strong tornadoes possible. Large hail and wind gusts to around 80 mph will be possible as well, the report added.
Locally heavy rainfall will be likely with an increased potential for flash flooding across much of eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas, the report said. Two to 4 inches of rain will be common across the area with amounts as high as 8 inches possible in some locations. This will likely lead to flash flooding of creeks, streams and low lying areas.
EARLIER:
Forecasters expect severe storms starting this afternoon into Tuesday, even as they assess the intensity of Saturday's storms that produced "a handful of tornadoes," a meteorologist said.
Meteorologists are preparing for a range of possible weather outcomes Tuesday. Storms are expected to originate in Oklahoma and move into western Arkansas, said Mike Teague, a meteorologist with the Tulsa branch of the National Weather Service.
Teague said tornadoes, flooding and hail are all possible -- "the whole ball of wax, if you will."
The meteorologists' predictions are subject to change, said Dylan Cooper, a meteorologist with the North Little Rock office of the National Weather Service. It's a "little too early to specify how that may play out," he said.
As with Tuesday's expected storms, the storms Saturday blew in from Oklahoma, Teague said.
Crawford, Sebastian and Franklin counties were hit the hardest. Crews were out taking stock of the damage, and Teague said they did not have a count on the number of tornadoes as of Sunday afternoon.
Thus far, they have seen a lot of wind damage, he said Sunday afternoon. On Saturday, wind reached 70-80 mph, Teague said.
Teague said one tornado was reported in Fort Smith.
Cooper said southwestern Arkansas got the most rain, at 2-3 inches. Cooper did not know of any major flooding, but said that because there has been so much rain this year, it's something to watch for.
This year, Northwest Arkansas has received 10-20 inches of rain; southwest, central and northeast Arkansas have gotten 25-35 inches; and southeast Arkansas has had the most, at 40-50 inches, Cooper said.
"Basically it was kind of a hodgepodge of a lot of different things yesterday," Cooper said.
On Saturday, central Arkansas experienced gustnadoes, which are similar to tornadoes except they form from the ground up, Cooper said. Tornadoes form in the clouds and move to the ground. Gustnadoes typically don't cause as much devastation as tornadoes but can still cause severe wind damage.
Gustnadoes typically happen quickly and collect dust, making them look like "dust devils on steroids," Cooper said. The tighter their spiral, the faster they spin.
"It's kind of like a figure skater pulling in their arms," Cooper said.
NW News on 05/20/2019