Alert archive / Arkansas / Mesoscale Discussions in 2026

Mesoscale Discussion 9

January 8, 20264 states

The Storm Prediction Center issued this mesoscale discussion at Jan 8, 2026, 10:44 AM CST for 4 states. It was in force for 2 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Jan 8, 2026, 10:44 AM CST (16:44 UTC)
Expired: Jan 8, 2026, 12:45 PM CST
In force: 2 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Concerning: Tornado watch 1

All 52 counties

Baxter County, AR, Benton County, AR, Boone County, AR, Carroll County, AR, Cleburne County, AR, Crawford County, AR, Franklin County, AR, Fulton County, AR, Independence County, AR, Izard County, AR, Johnson County, AR, Logan County, AR, Madison County, AR, Marion County, AR, Newton County, AR, Pope County, AR, Searcy County, AR, Sebastian County, AR, Sharp County, AR, Stone County, AR, Van Buren County, AR, Washington County, AR, Cherokee County, KS, Barry County, MO, Camden County, MO, Christian County, MO, Dade County, MO, Dallas County, MO, Douglas County, MO, Greene County, MO, Howell County, MO, Jasper County, MO, Laclede County, MO, Lawrence County, MO, McDonald County, MO, Newton County, MO, Oregon County, MO, Ozark County, MO, Polk County, MO, Pulaski County, MO, Stone County, MO, Taney County, MO, Texas County, MO, Webster County, MO, Wright County, MO, Adair County, OK, Cherokee County, OK, Delaware County, OK, Haskell County, OK, Latimer County, OK, Ottawa County, OK, Sequoyah County, OK

The radar

The Springfield radar (KSGF), 106 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 16:48 UTC, the scan nearest the moment this went out.

Open the radar archive at this moment

The archived warnings, watches and discussions in force at that minute are drawn over the scan, this one among them.

The nearest sounding before it

Springfield, MO (KSGF), launched 12:00Z, 4.7 hours before the alert went out and 63 km from the middle of its area. This is the routine balloon launch nearest before it, the air the forecaster had in hand, not a measurement taken for the alert.

Skew-T log-p

Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.

Hodograph

The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km.

Mixed-layer CAPE: 42 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -284 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1040 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 57 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 360 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 338 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.3

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

As transmitted.

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SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jan 8, 8:30 AM CST	Tornado Watch	SPC	Benton, Washington	243 days
Jan 8, 9:08 AM CST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Benton, Washington	2 hr
Jan 8, 3:14 PM CST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Baxter, Boone, Cleburne, Fulton, Independence, Izard and 8 more	2 hr
Jan 8, 5:41 AM CST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Caddo, Canadian, Carter, Cleveland, Comanche, Cotton and 25 more	2 hr
Jan 8, 7:49 AM CST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Adair, Carter, Cherokee, Cleveland, Coal, Craig and 29 more	86 min

Nearby

Mesoscale Discussions in Arkansas, 2026 Mesoscale Discussions in Missouri, 2026 Mesoscale Discussions in Oklahoma, 2026 Every mesoscale discussion in 2026

Sources

The product and its follow-ups from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center text; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.