Tornado near Vilonia, Arkansas

Chase Recap:

We stayed in Tyler, TX the night before and were targeting southern Arkansas most of the day, close to the middle of the high risk (SPC Chasers!) that was later issued. It seemed like storms may fire in Northern Louisiana and move into a great environment close to the AR/LA border.

A couple storms tried, but seemed to be having capping/lift issues, so we continued bailing northeast towards I-40 before deciding to drop back on the Little Rock storm.

A large, violent tornado was reported as it passed through the northern suburbs. We were able to get on a divided highway and make good time up to just south of the path near El Paso, AR. We didn’t dare get closer as it had caused considerable damage and seemed to be quite strong judging by it’s radar presentation. The sun had also gone down and the terrain was crap, so we stuck back, listening to the roar from a distance, and then driving up into the path after it crossed.

We found the first set of damage almost immediately but there was another chaser there checking up on them, so we kept driving in the path, but ended up not finding any major house damage and returning to the first damage spot.

We were informed that one of the fatalities of that night was located in that area of the first damage we came upon. A very sobering night for sure.

We gave up our chase after that and headed to Memphis for the night.