An overnight storm system brought plenty of rain to Union County, but South Central Arkansas communities were spared the severe weather that spawned tornadoes in Texas and NW Arkansas.
Union County was under a severe thunderstorm warning issued by the National Weather Service’s Shreveport office until yesterday morning and was at the far northeastern edge of a NWS tornado watch until initially 10 a.m. Monday, although it was later canceled for Union County around 5:30 a.m. The watch ran from central Texas north into Oklahoma and Arkansas.
According to reporting by the Associated Press, an F-3 tornado tore through a densely populated portion of the Dallas metroplex, with a max wind speed of 140 miles per hour. A second tornado, an F-1, hit the DFW suburb of Rowlett. Tornadoes in Oklahoma and Arkansas killed four people. One person died in Rogers when a tree fell on their home. Two teenage boys died of carbon monoxide poisoning in Weleetka, Oklahoma when they used a portable gas generator in their travel trailer, according to Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation spokesperson Brook Arbeitman. An early Monday morning tornado was on the ground for a few minutes in Memphis, according to the AP.
Tornadoes are not common in October, and cities are rarely hit because they don’t have a big footprint in the tornado belt, tornado scientist Harold Brooks of the National Severe Storms Laboratory to the AP. The National Severe Storms Laboratory is based in Norman, Oklahoma.
The front brought slightly cooler temperatures. More rain is predicted for this weekend, with lows in the upper to mid-40s throughout the week.