Power Outage in El Dorado, AR

Four power poles were broken near the Felsenthal Lock and Dam just east of the Felsenthal community. Power was out between the Felsenthal community and the Lock and Dam, as well as along Old Lock 6 Road.

Numerous trees and power lines were blown down near and east of the Felsenthal community, especially along Old Lock 6 Road. Loggers, several residents, and fishermen were trapped by the fallen trees.

Trees and powerlines were downed throughout the county.

A tree was blown down onto power lines at the intersection of Pigeon Hill Road and Ward Road. Power was out to much of this area.

Trees were downed along with powerlines on Hwy. 82 west of El Dorado, Arkansas.

Powerlines were downed near Marysville, Arkansas.

Numerous trees and powerlines were downed along Campbell Road and Hinson Road in the Parkers Chapel Community. One tree fell through a mobile home causing significant damage. There were no reports of injuries.

Trees and powerlines were downed in the south part of the county.

Trees and powerlines were downed in the south part of the county.

A couple of trees were downed in town. Other large limbs were downed and several powerlines were downed as well.

Numerous trees were downed along with power poles. Some structural damage was also reported.

Trees and powerlines were downed in El Dorado, Arkansas.

Widespread trees and powerlines downed across the entire county.

Tree tops were downed in town along with some scattered power outages.

Trees and powerlines were downed at the intersection of Hwy. 57 and Hwy. 82.

Powerlines were blown down on Shuler Road west of El Dorado, Arkansas.

Power lines were downed on the west side of El Dorado, Arkansas.

The remnants of Hurricane Ike which moved northward through northeast Texas on September 13th resulted in Tropical Storm force wind gusts across portions of Union County, Arkansas. Damage was scattered across the county with several reports of trees and power lines downed from the high wind gusts. The town of Smackover, Arkansas was hit particularly hard with much of the town without power during the height of the storm. Other large trees were downed south of El Dorado, Arkansas blocking Hwy. 15. Nearly a dozen large trees were downed in El Dorado, Arkansas alone.

Power lines were downed near the intersection of D Avenue and Pecan Street.

Numerous trees and power lines were downed throughout the county. Wind gusts were estimated near 50 mph.

Trees and power lines were downed at the intersection of 10th Street and North Jefferson Street.

Trees and power lines were downed in the Parkers Chapel community.

A supercell thunderstorm produced downed trees and powerlines along Hwy 167 south of town. Two stores were also damaged along Iron Mountain Road in the Faircrest Community. The roof was blown off one store.

Numerous large trees down and power lines snapped.

Trees and power lines were toppled. Several empty railroad cars were blown over.

Several large trees and power lines were down.

Damage was confined mostly to small and medium trees and tree limbs. No structures or power lines were in the path of this tornado.

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.

A deep southwesterly flow aloft prevailed across the Southern Plains and Lower Mississippi Valley on January 30th-31st, ahead of a strong upper level low pressure system that drifted through Southern California, the Desert Southwest into Northern Mexico. Meanwhile, a strong but shallow arctic cold front shifted south through the Southern Plains on the January 29th-30th, before slowing significantly in the higher terrain of the Ouachitas of Southeast Oklahoma and Western Arkansas. Weak upper level disturbances embedded in this flow ahead of the low resulted in widespread sleet and freezing rain across much of the Southern Plains given the warm air above this shallow, freezing air mass, with areas of light freezing rain affecting portions of East Texas, extreme Southeast Oklahoma, and Southwest Arkansas on January 30th-February 2nd. Temperatures through the period ranged from a couple of degrees either side of the freezing mark across portions of Southwest Arkansas, with light ice accumulations ranging from a glaze up to 0.15 inches, mainly on elevated objects such as bridges and overpasses, trees and power lines. ||The following are freezing rain reports across various counties in Southwest Arkansas:||Sevier County: De Queen: 0.01 inches.|Howard County: Nashville: 0.01 inches.|Lafayette County: Lewisville: 0.10 inches.|Columbia County: Waldo: 0.15 inches.|Union County: El Dorado: 0.09 inches.

A large and amplifying upper trough dug south through the eastern two-thirds of the United States along and east of the Rockies on December 22nd, which ushered in the coldest temperatures for December in decades to much of the country leading up to the Christmas Day holiday weekend. This very cold arctic air mass moved into extreme Southeast Oklahoma, Southwest Arkansas, and Northeast Texas during the morning hours of the 22nd, with temperatures falling sharply some 20-30+ degrees with the attendant cold frontal passage into the single digits by the morning hours of the 23rd. Very strong and gusty northwest winds of 35-45 mph were observed behind the front even through the morning of the 24th, producing a long duration of wind chill values ranging from 0 to as low as -9 degrees across South-central Arkansas from the evening of the 22nd to the morning of the 24th. While the temperatures associated with this arctic air mass were not quite record-breaking for this time of year, the long duration of subfreezing temperatures, which persisted nearly 2 days, resulted in multiple reports of freezing and bursting of water pipes, as well as sporadic power outages across these areas.||Here are the lowest wind chill values recorded across South-central Arkansas from December 22nd through the morning of the 24th:||Columbia County: Magnolia Ralph C Weiser Field Airport, -9 degrees|Union County: El Dorado Goodwin Field Airport, -8 degrees; Felsenthal National Wildlife Refuge, 0 degrees.

An upper low pressure system drifted north over Southeast Oklahoma and Western Arkansas during the early morning hours of June 7th, with an upper level disturbance beneath the attendant trough enhancing an area of showers and thunderstorms over Southwest Arkansas. A moist and unstable air mass was in place, with weak steering also present which resulted in slow-moving storms producing locally heavy rainfall. Rainfall amounts of 3-5 inches fell from Southern Howard County across Northern Hempstead and Nevada Counties, which resulted in flash flooding over Northern Hempstead County where several roads were flooded and closed. ||Another complex of showers and thunderstorms developed during the early morning hours of June 7th across Northwest Texas, and shifted east-southeast across North Texas throughout the morning, ahead of another shortwave trough that ejected east beneath an upper low pressure system that had begun to lift north across Southeast Oklahoma and Western Arkansas. The air mass ahead of this complex of storms across the Ark-La-Tex warmed considerably throughout the day, resulting in moderately unstable conditions within a marginally sheared environment. Thus, the storms intensified as they entered East Texas and remained severe and they progressed east across Southern Arkansas and North Louisiana. Trees and power lines were downed throughout the path of these storms, with a tornado briefly touching down just west of Calion, AR in Northeast Union County from a storm that developed ahead of the main line of storms. These storms exited Southwest Arkansas during the late afternoon hours.

A small complex of showers and thunderstorms developed during the early morning hours of June 22nd across Southwest Arkansas, along a weak surface front as a series of shortwave impulses traversed east across the southern half of Arkansas. The air mass was very moist and unstable along and just south of this surface front, with these storms having backbuilded south southwest into the more unstable air. As a result, these storms intensified and became severe, as they tracked southeast across Eastern Union County Arkansas and Northeast Union Parish Louisiana. Damaging winds downed numerous trees and snapped power poles near and just east of the Felsenthal community, with additional limbs downed in Huttig. These storms maintained their severe intensity as they moved southeast into Western Ashley County Arkansas and Morehouse Parish Louisiana.

With a very cold atmosphere already in place, an upper level storm system moved out of the Texas Hill Country and into Northeast Texas, Southwest Arkansas and Northwest Louisiana during the afternoon hours of February 11th. Precipitation became widespread across the region late in the afternoon and especially during the overnight hours of February 11th and the 12th. During the onset of precipitation, a mixture of rain and sleet was the predominant precipitation type with some sleet accumulations exceeding one inch across portions of South Central Arkansas. There was even a brief transition of moderate snow across portions of the region as well. During the evening and overnight hours of the event, the transition turned to predominantly freezing rain with some hefty accumulations noted across the region. Ice accumulations of one quarter of an inch were reported in Columbia and Union Counties in South Central Arkansas. Impacts included numerous automobile accidents, downed trees and powerlines as well as many without power across the counties.

A strong cold front moved through the southern half of Arkansas during the evening hours of January 13th and through the overnight hours of January 14th. Rain and a few storms accompanied the passage of this cold front across the southern half of the state. A very cold and shallow airmass followed the cold front yet southwesterly winds overran this cold shallow airmass above five thousand feet in the atmosphere. Meanwhile, weak disturbances moved towards the state from the west and with plenty of moisture still in place, overrunning precipitation developed during the morning of January 14th. With surface temperatures near or slightly below freezing, the precipitation fell as a mixture of sleet with some freezing rain noted as well. Accumulations were very light, mainly less than a tenth of an inch for the event. Regardless, bridges and overpasses quickly became slick resulting in several automobile accidents across mainly Nevada, Lafayette, Columbia and Union Counties in Southwest Arkansas. In addition, there were some minor power outages from falling limbs due to the weight of the ice.

As temperatures soared into the triple digits during the afternoon of the 28th, isolated showers and thunderstorms developed over South Central Arkansas and North Central Louisiana, along a weak backdoor surface front that drifted southwest into the region. The very hot air mass resulted in moderate instability developing over this area, with additional showers and thunderstorms rapidly developing along resultant outflow boundaries while propagating west southwest across the area. Several severe thunderstorm clusters resulted, with numerous reports of downed trees and power lines across El Dorado and southern Union County Arkansas/northwest Union Parish Louisiana, as well as portions of North Central Louisiana to the south. These storms diminished during the late evening hours with the loss of heating/instability.

A large outflow boundary initiated by previous showers and thunderstorms over northern Arkansas during the day Monday spread south into the Four State Region during the late afternoon and evening. This boundary helped with the development of showers and thunderstorms that interacted with other isolated and smaller scale outflow boundaries to produce scattered strong to severe thunderstorms that contained locally heavy rainfall, frequent and continuous lightning strikes, and gusty winds of 30 to near 45 mph and isolated higher gusts. These gusts downed trees and power lines. Daytime temperatures were near the century mark Around nightfall the storms went into a decreasing cycle with loss of the afternoon heating. However, during the evening, remnants of a sea breeze boundary spread north across parts of East Texas and lower Northwest and North Central Louisiana and collided with the south bound boundary, allowing storms to increase in intensity as they moved across parts of Louisiana just prior to midnight.

Scattered showers and thunderstorms developed over central Arkansas during the early afternoon of the August 29th, which spread south southwest into southwest Arkansas, southeast Oklahoma, and extreme northeast Texas during the mid afternoon hours through early evening along several outflow boundaries. Despite the weak winds aloft, these outflow boundaries merged with existing storms developing over pockets of very strong instability, resulting in scattered severe thunderstorms over portions of southcentral Arkansas and extreme northeast Texas. Several trees were downed east of El Dorado, Arkansas, with numerous trees and power lines downed in the city of Dekalb, Texas, as a result of a strong downburst. The 1st high school football game of the season at Dekalb High School was postponed due to the bad weather, with fans evacuating in time before the severe thunderstorm hit. The very strong winds knocked down a football goal post at the high school shortly after fans were evacuated.