3 Dead in Mena

Maybe not a bad as the famed Palm Sunday tornado outbreak in 1974 in the Midwest...but the Maundy Thursday outbreak will definitely be remembered in parts of the state. A devastating tornado moved thru the west Arkansas town of Mena Thursday evening killing 3 and injuring more than 30. More than one hundred homes and some businesses were damaged or destroyed. I have some wonderful clients there, and I hope the are safe. We dodged a bullet here in west Little Rock as most of the severe weather moved just north and south of us. In fact, we didn't get much rain or wind in the storm. As usual, KARK-TV did a top notch job of covering the severe weather outbreak with meteorologist Mike Francis and crew. The shot on the top of my blog is from their web site. My friend John Robinson with the National Weather Service is on scene evaluating the damage and has placed the tornado as probably a category F3. Here is a link to a story one the North Little Rock Weather Service site talking about the conditions that led to the outbreak. In the third image down of a visible satellite photo you can also see the smoke plumes from the devastating fires in Texas and Oklahoma.


Very cool again tonight with lows here in the low 40s. Northwest Arkansas may see some frost by morning with temps near the freezing mark. Rain is expected on Easter Sunday with a chance of severe weather to the south of us.