A small tornado was confirmed north of the Garrett Bridge community in southeast Lincoln County on Sunday.
The tornado, said to be either EF-0 or EF-1 (86 mph is the minimum speed for EF-1) landed in the area at about 2:05 p.m. and caused minimal damage to property in the area, according to John Lewis, a forecaster with the National Weather Service North Little Rock office. Video of the tornado, taken by Blake Morgan, was posted on the agency’s X (formerly Twitter) account, as the funnel can be seen moving behind trees.
“Just a little bit of tree damage and chicken house damage is all we heard about,” Lewis said.
The NWS issued a tornado warning for several locations in southeast Arkansas until 2:30 p.m. The area later experienced a sharp plunge in temperatures from the mid-60s in the afternoon and was expected to drop down to 25 degrees by 7 a.m. with a wind chill of 13 degrees.
Gusts as high as 28 mph dried up roads across southeast Arkansas before freezing temperatures were to settle, Lewis said, making chances of icy road conditions slim for Monday morning. In Pine Bluff lows for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights are expected to reach 21 with highs in the upper 30s through Friday, but a 50% chance of a wintry mix is the early projection for Thursday.
Forecasters are gathering more information about the system expected to bring the wintry mix, according to Lewis.
“The details are pretty sketchy,” he said. “The system is nowhere near the state now, and it doesn’t even really exist. The models are doing the best they can. We’ll learn more in the next couple of days as far as what’s going to happen, but right now, we’re in the preliminary stages of what we could get Thursday night or Friday. There’s some potential for winter weather.”