Power Outage in De Queen, AR

Several trees and power lines downed in and around De Queen.

Power lines were downed in De Queen.

A large tree fell onto a power line in De Queen, resulting in a power outage to several homes in the city.

Several trees were blown down and tangled with power lines along Highway 24 west of Horatio. The Dequeen Helms Sevier County Airport recorded a wind gust to 44 mph at 510 pm.

Powerlines were downed on Old Dierks Highway, on Geneva Church Road and several other Farm to Market roads southeast of De Queen, Arkansas.

Powerlines were downed and trees uprooted on Crosstrails Road.

Multiple trees were downed on West Locke Road on the west side of DeQueen, Arkansaas. The trees were clocking the road. A pine tree fell onto powerlines resulting in power outages.

A couple of trees were downed just north of De Queen which downed powerlines.

Numerous trees and powerlines were downed throughout the entire county.

Tornado destroyed at least 10 to 12 mobile homes along US-71 just north of De Queen, AR. Numerous trees and powerlines were also uprooted or snapped. There were 7 reported injuries, all in the mobile home park north of Dequeen, Arkansas but none were life threatening. The Arkansas governor declared Sevier County a disaster area because of the tornado damage in the county.

Tornado destroyed at least 10 to 12 mobile homes along US-71 just north of De Queen, AR. Numerous trees and powerlines were also uprooted or snapped. There were 7 reported injuries, all in the mobile home park north of Dequeen, Arkansas but none were life threatening. The Arkansas governor declared Sevier County a disaster area because of the tornado damage in the county.

The remnants of Tropical Storm Ike resulted in numerous trees and power lines downed across Sevier County, Arkansas. There were numerous power outages as well throughout the county. There were trees reported on two homes and one trailer house in the town of Dequeen, Arkansas.

Traffic lights were downed in town including a few trees and powerlines. Trees fell at Herman Dierks Park and Apache Trails and Cross Trails roads.

High winds associated with a Meso Wake Low pressure system downed trees and powerlines across the entire county. A roof was blown off a business and another business suffered roof damage in Horatio.

Trees and power lines were downed in town.

Numerous trees and power lines down.

Power lines toppled along Hwy 70.

After trying to recover from an ice storm two week earlier in the month, another even more devastating ice storm struck all of southwest Arkansas. Freezing rain resulted in ice accumulations ranging from 1/4 inch to as much as 6 inches. After taking a tour of the state, the Governor of Arkansas used words such as apocalyptic and cataclysmic to describe the damage. Power was knocked out across all of southwest Arkansas with nearly 300,000 homes and business without power due to thousands of trees and 2500 power poles either broken or toppled. Utility crews from 23 different states were summoned to help repair lines. Some residents were without power as late as the middle of January 2001.

An arctic air mass spilled southward out of the central plains and into the lower Mississippi Valley. This cold, surface air mass was overrun by a warm humid air mass which combined with a strong upper level storm system across west Texas. the result was widespread freezing rain across all of southwest Arkansas. The precipitation was a mixture of freezing rain, sleet and some light snow northwest of a Texarkana to Prescott Arkansas line while further east the precipitation was all freezing rain. Ice accumulations of two to four inches were common. An estimated 235,000 residents lost electrical power due to ice covered power lines snapping or ice covered trees splitting and falling across the lines. The was the worst storm in the history of the power companies suppling the power as far as damage but not total ice accumulations. A total of 29 transmission lines atop "H" shaped steel towers were snapped due to the weight of the ice. Numerous traffic accidents were also reported and many homes suffered damage from fallen trees and tree limbs. As a result, the Governor of Arkansas declared a State of Emergency for all of southwest Arkansas. Cleanup costs along reached upwards of 15 million dollars. Several Pine Plantations throughout southwest Arkansas suffered catastrophic damage from the ice storm with upwards of 25 million dollars worth of young trees destroyed.

Numerous trees and power lines down. Twenty eight (28) homes damaged. A chicken house was destroyed and 30 thousand chickens were contaminated resulting in their destruction.

An upper trough shifted southeast from Illinois across the Ozarks into East Texas during the afternoon of September 4th, which reinforced a weak surface front south into Southeast Oklahoma and Western/Central Arkansas. Afternoon temperatures climbed into the lower 90s just ahead of the front over Southeast Oklahoma and Southwest Arkansas, with adequate low level moisture present resulting in moderately unstable conditions. This trough increased large scale forcing along the front and within the moderately unstable environment, with isolated to widely scattered showers and thunderstorms developing over Southeast Oklahoma and the northern sections of Southwest Arkansas. One isolated severe thunderstorm did result over Northern Sevier County, which produced damaging winds that downed power lines in Gillham before weakening early in the evening.

On the heels of the first winter storm and historically cold temperatures observed earlier in the week across all of the Southern Plains and much of the Lower Mississippi Valley, a second significant winter storm developed across much of these areas from February 16th-19th, with areas of snow (some heavy) falling across Southwest Arkansas. Strong forcing and moisture associated with the next upper level trough to move atop the extensive arctic air mass in place resulted in increasingly heavier snowfall totals as we moved away from the Southeast Oklahoma border, with widespread two to in excess of four inches falling across much of Little River, Sevier, and Howard Counties. ||The following are snowfall totals that were recorded at various locations across portions of extreme Southwest Arkansas from this second winter storm:||Little River County: 7 NNW Ashdown: 10.0 inches, Foreman: 4.0 inches, Wilton: 3.0 inches, 8 WNW Winthrop: 2.0 inches. ||Sevier County: 1 W De Queen: 4.0 inches, Sevier County Airport: 2.2 inches, De Queen: 2.0 inches. ||Howard County: Dierks: 5.5 inches, Nashville: 4.7 inches.||When combined with the previous winter storm on the 14th-15th, widespread snowfall totals of eight to in excess of twelve inches were observed across Little River, Sevier, and Howard Counties in Southwest Arkansas. These totals crippled the region, making driving nearly impossible, with rolling blackouts further aggravated by the additional power outages the snow was responsible for. In addition, the weight of the snow from these two back to back winter storms also resulted in numerous metal carport canopies collapsing across Southwest Arkansas, with many homes and cars damaged.

A longwave trough and associated closed low pressure system extended from the Midwest/Mid Mississippi Valley southwest into Oklahoma during the afternoon hours of July 30th, with an attendant weak cool front mixing south into Northwest Arkansas, bisecting Eastern, Central, and Southern Oklahoma. As a shortwave trough rounded the base of the deeper trough near the front during the afternoon, showers and thunderstorms quickly developed during the late afternoon within a moderately unstable air mass, and intensified into a small mesoscale convective system (MCS) as it moved through far Southern and Southeast Oklahoma. Some of these storms were severe, with measured wind gusts up to 90 mph recorded by a couple of Oklahoma Mesonet stations, resulting in numerous reports of wind damage over these areas. These storms did weaken by the mid and late evening hours as they entered extreme Southeast Oklahoma and adjacent sections of Southwest Arkansas, but remained strong enough to down power lines in De Queen before weakening further below severe limits.

An upper level trough amplified during the daytime hours of October 31st across much of the Plains and Southern Rockies, which reinforced a strong cold front southeast into the Southern Plains. Ahead of this front and accompanying trough, above normal temperatures ranging from the mid 70s to lower 80s coupled with increased low level moisture resulted in a moderately unstable air mass during the afternoon. The pressure gradient tightened across the warm sector which expanded across much of the Ark-La-Tex, well ahead of the front as surface low pressure intensified along the frontal surface over North Texas. This enhanced wind shear as the front advanced east across much of Texas and Southeast Oklahoma, with large scale forcing ahead of the trough contributing to scattered shower and thunderstorm development during the afternoon over Southeast Oklahoma, Southwest Arkansas, and Central Texas. Some of these storms became severe of portions of Southwest Arkansas and extreme Northeast Texas, with a tree falling onto a power line in De Queen, resulting in power outages in the city.

A cold high pressure system at the surface brought very cold temperatures to the region during the overnight hours of January 7th and during the morning hours of January 8th. Low level winds returned allowed for returning moisture to portions of Northeast Texas, Southeast Oklahoma and Southwest Arkansas during the predawn hours however on January 8th. Through isentropic processes, some light freezing rain and freezing drizzle developed across Howard and Sevier Counties in Southwest Arkansas and this resulted in some icing conditions to mainly elevated objects such as bridges, overpasses, trees and powerlines. This led to some several traffic accidents across these counties through the mid morning hours on January 8th.

Peak afternoon heating and a cold frontal boundary were all the ingredients needed for strong to severe thunderstorms across portions of Sevier County, Arkansas. These storms produced damaging downburst winds which downed trees and powerlines across portions of the county.

Triple digit temperatures and dewpoints that mixed down into the lower 60s during the afternoon hours resulted in ample downburst conditions across Southwest Arkansas and Northeast Texas once storms developed from a disturbance aloft. These storms propagated southward and downed trees and powerlines.

Very hot temperatures near 106 across all of Southwest Arkansas during the afternoon hours of July 31st resulted in a very unstable airmass for the development of strong to severe thunderstorms. The airmass was moist as well with a dry atmosphere in the lowest seven thousand feet of the atmosphere. Once storms collapsed...they produced strong downburst winds...one of which downed trees and powerlines across Sevier County in Southwest Arkansas.