A tornado snapped trees between Lowell and War Eagle in Benton County on Wednesday evening, and the National Weather Service confirmed that an earlier tornado briefly touched down on Bull Shoals Lake on Tuesday, ending a long lull in volatile weather in Arkansas.
In Oklahoma, tornadoes raked Tulsa during its evening rush hour, with storms killing one person and injuring others.
The Benton County tornado continued through northern Madison County early Wednesday evening, peeling roofs off of chicken houses, destroying a barn and uprooting trees along Arkansas 127, north of Clifty.
Strong winds, thunderstorms and hail accompanied the system Wednesday as it marched across the northwest corner of the state. No injuries were reported in either tornado, meteorologists with the National Weather Service said.
High winds in Madison and Carroll counties destroyed barns, uprooted trees and ripped the roofs from chicken houses.
Mike Ingram said the storm destroyed one of his chicken houses and damaged another two, along with a shed. Ingram lives on Arkansas 127 a few miles north of Clifty, where he farms cattle and about 26,000 chickens. Remnants of metal roofs were strewn down a hill next to his chicken houses.
Ingram said he arrived home about 5 p.m. Wednesday after putting bulls out for the spring breeding season.
"I got out of the truck and saw my chicken houses blowing by my face," Ingram said. "I ran in the house to look for my wife and children and saw my shop roof blow over my head."
Ingram said he thought debris was swirling around in the air in a circular motion.
"I saw silver chicken house metal in the air all around me," he said.
Ingram said his family was safe, hunkered down in the hallway. The storm didn't damage his residence or a boat parked outside.
Kenny Riley, area maintenance supervisor for the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department, said trees had to be removed Wednesday night from Arkansas 127 and Arkansas 23, which leads to Eureka Springs, 12 miles to the north.
"We just had a few trees in the road," said Riley. "We got them cut out at this time."
In Oklahoma, Tulsa County sheriff's office Capt. Billy McKelvey said one person was killed in a mobile home park near suburban Sand Springs that was nearly destroyed Wednesday during severe weather. It wasn't yet clear whether it was a tornado or straight-line winds that hit the mobile home park, which McKelvey said could accommodate 40 to 50 trailers. McKelvey said he believed at least 15 people were hurt, but he did not have the exact number yet.
Electric companies reported 27,000 homes and businesses were without power in the Oklahoma City area, and 28,500 had lost power in Tulsa County. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol said an overturned semitrailer had snarled traffic in both directions on Interstate 35, a major north-south route.
Television video Wednesday evening showed roof damage in a neighborhood in Moore, where a storm two years ago scraped lots to their foundations. A glass door at the Tulsa building that houses the National Weather Service office was smashed, and several cars in the parking lot lost their windows.
Wednesday's storm in Arkansas came one day after the National Weather Service's North Little Rock office issued a tornado warning for northern Boone and northwestern Marion counties at 6:55 p.m., when meteorologists spotted a storm system that later spawned a waterspout -- a tornado that remains on water -- on Bull Shoals Lake west of Peel in Marion County.
They were the first tornado warnings issued in the state by the National Weather Service since Oct. 13, said meteorologist Jeff Hood of North Little Rock. The five-month span between warnings was one of the longest noted by the Weather Service, he said.
Forecasters have credited the decline in tornadoes across the country this year to lower temperatures in the eastern United States and higher temperatures in the west. Tornadic weather generally forms with the inverse weather ingredients, as cold air from the west clashes with warmer air from the east.
National Weather Service meteorologist Joe Goudsward said he expected the storm system to weaken as it dipped farther into the state and as the evening air cooled. Still, he expected winds and heavy rains could roll through the northern half of the state overnight and into this morning.
Temperatures are expected to drop from the upper 70s and low 80s on Wednesday afternoon to the mid-30s by tonight.
Hood said meteorologists rated Tuesday's waterspout as an EF-0 tornado with winds between 65 mph and 85 mph. It did not touch land, and no damage was reported.
The twister was reported by members of the Marion County Office of Emergency Services at 7:11 p.m. Tuesday, Hood said.
Ron Marler said he spotted a funnel cloud forming near his Lakeview home in Baxter County on Tuesday evening and watched it as it dipped over Bull Shoals Lake. Lakeview is about 35 miles east of Peel, where the waterspout formed.
"I saw the dark wall cloud and a twister-looking thing sideways in the cloud," Marler said. "It turned sideways and started coming down. I thought it was a pretty cool deal."
The funnel cloud didn't touch down and retreated into the clouds about two or three minutes afterward.
Information for this article was contributed by Justin Juozapavicius of The Associated Press.
State Desk on 03/26/2015