Tornado Outbreak of 2024

In the early morning hours of Sunday, May 26, 2024, during Memorial Day weekend, multiple tornadoes struck northwestern and north-central Arkansas, killing (either directly or indirectly) ten people in the state across four counties: Benton, Marion, Boone, and Baxter. Several smaller tornadoes struck across northern Arkansas. The National Weather Service eventually tallied seventeen tornadoes occurring in the state on this one day. It was the deadliest tornado outbreak to hit the state since storms struck Mayflower (Faulkner County) and Vilonia (Faulkner County) in April 2014, killing sixteen.

May 2024 had witnessed a particularly active tornado season across the United States, with fatal twisters causing extensive damage across the Midwest and the South. The tornadoes that struck Arkansas were part of a larger storm system that resulted in twenty-three deaths across Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, and Kentucky. Two days prior to the May 26 outbreak, an EF1 tornado touched down between De Queen (Sevier County) and Lockesburg (Sevier County).

The National Weather Service out of Tulsa, Oklahoma, initially recorded four tornadoes striking Benton County early in the morning of May 26, with two hitting near Decatur (Benton County) producing damage consistent with an EF3 tornado, while another two hit near Centerton (Benton County) causing damage consistent with an EF2. The storm system produced straight-line winds that resulted in damage across Bentonville (Benton County), Rogers (Benton County), and War Eagle (Benton County). The Rogers area saw extensive damage to its downtown, including the complete destruction of the Susie Q Malt Shop, a restaurant more than sixty years old. One of the Decatur tornadoes had a path width of 3,200 yards, setting a new state record (the previous record being the April 2014 tornado at 2,900 yards wide). After the fact, another tornado was confirmed for Benton County. At Beaver Lake, the storm ripped a boat dock from the shore. The city hall at Little Flock (Benton County) was also destroyed.

The system resulted in another EF3 tornado that produced a 21.1-mile path across Boone and Marion counties, starting south of Bellefonte (Boone County) and ending northwest of Summit (Marion County), killing two people in Boone and two in Marion. An EF3 tornado produced a 36.1-mile track across three counties, starting south of Yellville (Marion County) and proceeding across Baxter County, killing one woman in the Briarcliff (Baxter County) and Salesville (Baxter County) area, and then ending near Elizabeth in Fulton County. Storm damage also occurred across northern Madison County, most notably in the communities of Clifty (Madison County) and Forum (Madison County), resulting in the temporary closure of Withrow Springs State Park.

Later that day, EF1 tornadoes hit Ozark Acres (Sharp County) near Hardy (Sharp County), in Randolph County near Pocahontas (Randolph County), and in Fulton County near Salem (Fulton County). An EF2 struck Paragould (Greene County) near Greene County Tech High School, while a EF1 touched down in a rural area along the Craighead County line. No injuries were reported, although several structures were damaged.

Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders received criticism from some corners, most notably from Nate Bell, a former Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives, for staying in North Carolina much of the weekend and not appearing publicly in Arkansas until a briefing in Bentonville at 8:00 p.m. on May 26. For the Arkansas Times, Bell wrote, “Any other governor of Arkansas would have been on the plane and headed home at first light Sunday morning. She chose to put her own ambition, her fealty to Donald Trump and a cameo at a NASCAR event ahead of the job we hired her to do. She chose poorly.” However, Gov. Sanders did immediately declare a state of emergency for the affected areas and, on May 29, requested from President Joe Biden a major disaster declaration. That same day, Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), toured storm damage in Rogers. Sanders also mobilized members of the Arkansas National Guard to distribute potable water in Rogers, help direct traffic, and protect utility workers throughout the area. President Biden approved a declaration of major disaster for Benton, Boone, and Marion counties on May 31, 2024.

By the time the storms departed, more than 120,000 people were left without power across the region. The storm system that spawned these tornadoes gradually moved toward the northeastern United States, triggering tornado watches in Washington DC and Baltimore, Maryland. The Storm Prediction Center of the National Weather Service logged 622 preliminary reports of severe weather occurring across the United States, from Wyoming to New Hampshire, for May 26, 2024, making it the most active day of the year. Another round of storms struck Texas in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area early on the morning of May 28, 2024, leaving more than a million people without power; the larger region of the American South was experiencing record high temperatures at the time.

For additional information:
“2024 Tornado Weather Events in Eastern Oklahoma + Northwest Arkansas.” National Weather Service. https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/4b42e5c8f93b40018ccfa3ef4a7237bd (accessed October 1, 2024).

Bell, Nate. “Tornadoes, NASCAR and a Governor’s Skewed Priorities.” Arkansas Times, May 28, 2024. https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2024/05/28/tornadoes-nascar-and-a-governors-skewed-priorities (accessed October 1, 2024).

Bowden, Bill. “Tornado Tally Climbs to 13, Deaths to 10.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, May 31, 2024, pp. 1B, 5B. Online at https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2024/may/30/13-tornadoes-confirmed-from-sunday-in-north/ (accessed October 1, 2024).

Bowden, Bill, Remington Miller, and Tracy Neal. “8 Die as Twisters Rip State’s North.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, May 27, 2024, pp. 1A, 3A. Online at https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2024/may/27/eight-killed-in-arkansas-tornadoes-sunday-morning/ (accessed October 1, 2024).

Bowden, Bill, Daniel McFadin, and Doug Thompson. “Officials Confirm 5 Tornadoes.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, May 28, 2024, pp. 1A, 6A. Online at https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2024/may/28/five-tornadoes-confirmed-in-north-arkansas-so-far/ (accessed October 1, 2024).

Gaspeny, Al. “Little Flock Builds Back after Storms.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, June 7, 2024, pp. 1B, 3B. Online at https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2024/jun/07/little-flock-its-city-hall-in-shambles-works-to/ (accessed October 1, 2024).

Grajeda, Antoinette. “Grassroots Tornado Recovery Efforts Take Hold in Rural Community Where Arkansans Feel Forgotten.” Arkansas Advocate, June 6, 2024. https://arkansasadvocate.com/2024/06/06/grassroots-tornado-recovery-efforts-take-hold-in-rural-community-where-arkansans-feel-forgotten/ (accessed October 1, 2024).

Mahmoud, Amir. “Tornadoes Often Leave PTSD in Their Wake.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, June 3, 2024, pp. 1A, 3A. Online at https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2024/jun/03/tornadoes-often-leave-ptsd-in-their-wake/ (accessed October 1, 2024).

McFadin, Daniel. “At Least 300 Homes Hit by Storms.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, June 1, 2024, pp. 1B, 8B. Online at https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2024/may/31/at-least-300-homes-were-damaged-by-storms-that/ (accessed October 1, 2024).

“NWS: Two Tornados Confirmed in Greene County.” KAIT8, May 26, 2024. https://www.kait8.com/2024/05/27/e-911-director-storm-damage-reported-paragould/ (accessed October 1, 2024).

Roper, Campbell. “FEMA Teams on Ground in NWA.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, June 4, 2024, pp. 1B, 2B. Online at https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2024/jun/04/fema-teams-on-ground-in-nwa/ (accessed October 1, 2024).

Saccente, Thomas. “Post-Storm Debris Removal Underway.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, June 21, 2024, p. 4B. Online at https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2024/jun/21/company-has-gathered-over-500000-cubic-yards-of/ (accessed October 1, 2024).

Schulte, Bret, and Katie Benner. “‘I’ve Never Seen Anything Like It.’ Tornado Devastates Arkansas Town.” New York Times, May 27, 2024. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/27/us/arkansas-storms-rogers.html (accessed October 1, 2024).

“Severe Storms on May 21–26, 2024.” National Weather Service, Little Rock, Arkansas. https://www.weather.gov/lzk/svr0524a.htm (accessed October 1, 2024).

Yoon, John, Isabella Kwai, and Johnny Diaz. “Storms Kill 18 in Southern Plains as Severe Weather Moves East.” New York Times, May 26, 2024. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/26/us/tornadoes-storms-texas-oklahoma.html (accessed October 1, 2024).

Young, Joel. “At Least 16 Tornadoes Confirmed over the Memorial Day Weekend.” Arkansas Storm Team Weather Blog, May 29, 2024. KARK. https://www.kark.com/weather/weather-headlines/ast-weather-blog-at-least-7-tornadoes-confirmed-over-the-memorial-day-weekend/ (accessed October 1, 2024).

Staff of the CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas