This graphic from the National Weather Service highlights areas in Arkansas that could see severe weather on Tuesday. (National Weather Service/X) Let us read it for you. Listen now. Your browser does not support the audio element.
Storms rolling through Arkansas on Tuesday have the potential to produce large hail, strong winds and a slight tornado risk, the National Weather Service said.
Damaging winds could be as strong as 80 mph and hail could be as big as a baseball, a hazardous weather briefing from the weather service said Tuesday morning. The potential for a tornado is low.
Justin Condry, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in North Little Rock, said that the greatest threat for Tuesday's storms is large hail.
"A tornado can't be ruled out, but there is not a high risk to see them today," Condry said Tuesday morning.
The storms Tuesday will be scattered, so forecasters aren't sure where the storms will fire off, he said.
Parts of eastern Arkansas will have a greater chance at seeing severe weather, forecasters said.
Some eastern portions of the state, including Jonesboro and West Memphis, are at an enhanced risk of severe weather, a level 3 out of 5 for storm intensity.
Parts of northern, central and southern Arkansas, including Little Rock, Pine Bluff and El Dorado, are at a slight risk of severe weather. That means scattered severe storms are possible.
Condry said storms in Little Rock are most liely to occur between noon and 2 p.m., Tuesday.
"We could see nothing at all, it just depends on the storms," he said.
Areas further west, including Conway, Hot Springs, Arkadelphia and Mountain Home, are at a marginal risk for severe weather. A marginal risk of severe weather means that isolated, severe thunderstorms are possible, according to the weather service.
MONDAY NIGHT TORNADOES
Tuesday's storms follow several tornadoes reported in Northwest Arkansas and potentially another one in Bismarck. "We have some reports of some possibly tornadic damage in Bismarck and we plan to send a team out on Wednesday," Condry said. "We've mostly seen pictures of downed trees and some damage to homes."
A Facebook post from the Bismarck Fire Protection Association, a nonprofit organization that works to provide fire, rescue and first responders services, said that there were homes damaged on Monday.
"We have multiple homes destroyed. The roof was ripped off of this residence with multiple trees and power lines down in their yard. Luckily they were not injured just shook up," the post said. It did not immediately identify the location of the residence.
Over 2,000 people in Arkansas were without power on Tuesday morning just after 10 a.m., Entergy showed on the utility's online outage map.
Yell County had over 800 without power and Hot Spring County, where Bismarck is located, had over 200 people without power, the map showed.
Condry said that there were also reports of trees downed in the Newport area, in Jackson County, but forecasters believe that was damage caused by straight-line winds at this time.
Jackson County had over 190 people without power Tuesday morning, Entergy's outage map showed.
The forecaster said that it was possible more damage would be reported before the end of the day.