A shortwave trough rapidly traversed east across Oklahoma, Arkansas, and extreme Northeast Texas on February 1st, just ahead of a weak cold front that extended from North Texas, into Southeast Oklahoma and Western Arkansas. The air mass south of the front over Northeast Texas, Southwest Arkansas, and extreme Northern Louisiana destabilized sufficiently as temperatures warmed well into the 70s,…
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The episode as NWS SHV wrote it up.
A shortwave trough rapidly traversed east across Oklahoma, Arkansas, and extreme Northeast Texas on February 1st, just ahead of a weak cold front that extended from North Texas, into Southeast Oklahoma and Western Arkansas. The air mass south of the front over Northeast Texas, Southwest Arkansas, and extreme Northern Louisiana destabilized sufficiently as temperatures warmed well into the 70s, within a very moist air mass in place. Cold temperatures and strong instability aloft ahead of this shortwave trough resulted in scattered showers and thunderstorms developing over the region, some of which produced marginally severe to at times, severe hail. These storms exited the region during the late afternoon hours, although additional widely scattered thunderstorms redeveloped during the mid-evening hours over Northwest and Northcentral Louisiana, and again produced a couple of reports of marginally severe hail in and near Monroe, LA. These storms diminished during the late evening, as they moved away from the better forcing near the front as it drifted into extreme Northern Louisiana and Deep East Texas.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Shreveport, LA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Feb 1, 12:40 PM CST, 1 hour earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SHREVEPORT LA 1240 PM CST WED FEB 1 2012 .DISCUSSION... WILL BE UPDATING THE ZONES TO INCLUDE THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH NUMBER 20 WHICH WILL RUN UNTIL 8 PM CST. && .PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS... SHV 59 75 62 73 58 / 30 20 50 80 70 MLU 57 75 61 76 59 / 30 20 50 80 70 DEQ 51 67 58 69 50 / 30 20 50 80 70 TXK 55 69 59 71 54 / 30 20 50 80 70 ELD 54 69 57 73 58 / 30 20 50 80 70 TYR 58 74 62 72 51 / 30 20 50 80 70 GGG 58 74 62 72 53 / 30 20 50 80 70 LFK 60 75 63 75 59 / 20 30 50 80 70 && .SHV WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... AR...NONE. LA...NONE. OK...NONE. TX...NONE. && 06
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SHREVEPORT LA 1210 PM CST WED FEB 1 2012 ARZ050-051-059>061-070>073-LAZ001>006-012-OKZ077-TXZ096-097-108>112- 124>126-136>138-150-151-021200- BIENVILLE-BOSSIER-BOWIE-CADDO-CAMP-CASS-CLAIBORNE-COLUMBIA-FRANKLIN- GREGG-HARRISON-HEMPSTEAD-HOWARD-LAFAYETTE-LINCOLN-LITTLE RIVER- MARION-MCCURTAIN-MILLER-MORRIS-NEVADA-PANOLA-RED RIVER TX-RUSK- SEVIER-SMITH-TITUS-UNION AR-UNION LA-UPSHUR-WEBSTER-WOOD- 1210 PM CST WED FEB 1 2012 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF SOUTH CENTRAL AND SOUTHWEST ARKANSAS...NORTH CENTRAL AND NORTHWEST LOUISIANA... SOUTHEAST OKLAHOMA AND EAST AND NORTHEAST TEXAS. .DAY ONE...THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT... SCATTERED STRONG THUNDERSTORMS...SOME OF WHICH COULD CONTAIN LARGE HAIL...WILL BE POSSIBLE ALONG AND NORTH OF THE INTERSTATE 20 CORRIDOR OF NORTHEAST TEXAS AND NORTHERN LOUISIANA. THIS WOULD INCLUDE SOUTHEAST OKLAHOMA AND SOUTHWEST AND SOUTH CENTRAL ARKANSAS. SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS HAVE ALREADY DEVELOPED OVER SOUTHEAST OKLAHOMA AND NORTHEAST TEXAS...AND SHOULD INCREASE IN AREAL COVERAGE AND INTENSITY AS THE UPPER LEVEL TROUGH SHIFTS EAST INTO THE AREA. WITH A VERY MOIST AIRMASS IN PLACE LATE TONIGHT...PATCHY DENSE FOG IS EXPECTED TO FORM ACROSS THE ENTIRE FOUR STATE REGION. THIS FOG COULD BECOME MORE WIDESPREAD AFTER MIDNIGHT AND WOULD LIKELY CONTINUE INTO MID THURSDAY MORNING. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...THURSDAY THROUGH TUESDAY... A MORE VIGOROUS UPPER STORM SYSTEM TROUGH IS EXPECTED TO BECOME A CUTOFF LOW ACROSS THE FOUR CORNERS REGION THURSDAY INTO THURSDAY NIGHT. DISTURBANCES MOVING INTO OUR REGION FROM THE SOUTHWEST WILL COMBINE WITH THE DEEP MOISTURE IN PLACE...TO PRODUCE WIDESPREAD SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS DURING THE DAY FRIDAY...AND FRIDAY NIGHT. INSTABILITY COULD INCREASE FRIDAY INTO FRIDAY NIGHT WITH THE DEVELOPMENT OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... ISOLATED SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE POSSIBLE THIS AFTERNOON ACROSS THE MIDDLE RED RIVER VALLEY OF NORTHEAST TEXAS...SOUTHEAST OKLAHOMA AND SOUTHWEST ARKANSAS. HAIL WOULD BE THE PRIMARY THREAT WITH ANY THUNDERSTORMS THAT DEVELOP. THE ISOLATED NATURE OF THE EXPECTED CONVECTION WOULD LIKELY WARRANT A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH AND THE NECESSITY OF ACTIVATING SPOTTERS...EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT...AND HAM RADIO OPERATORS. LAZ010-011-013-014-017>022-TXZ149-152-153-165>167-021200- ANGELINA-CALDWELL-CHEROKEE-DE SOTO-GRANT-JACKSON-LA SALLE- NACOGDOCHES-NATCHITOCHES-OUACHITA-RED RIVER LA-SABINE LA-SABINE TX- SAN AUGUSTINE-SHELBY-WINN- 1210 PM CST WED FEB 1 2012 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF NORTH CENTRAL AND NORTHWEST LOUISIANA...AND EAST AND NORTHEAST TEXAS. .DAY ONE...THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT... SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE POSSIBLE ACROSS THE REGION THIS AFTERNOON...ESPECIALLY ALONG AND SOUTH OF A LINE FROM JACKSONVILLE TO NEAR MONROE LOUISIANA. ANY THUNDERSTORMS THAT DEVELOP ACROSS THE REGION ARE NOT EXPECTED TO BECOME SEVERE. WITH A VERY MOIST AIRMASS IN PLACE LATE TONIGHT...PATCHY DENSE FOG IS EXPECTED TO FORM AGAIN ACROSS THE ENTIRE FOUR STATE REGION. THIS FOG COULD BECOME MORE WIDESPREAD AFTER MIDNIGHT AND WOULD LIKELY CONTINUE INTO MID THURSDAY MORNING. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...THURSDAY THROUGH TUESDAY... A MORE VIGOROUS UPPER STORM SYSTEM TROUGH IS EXPECTED TO BECOME A CUTOFF LOW ACROSS THE FOUR CORNERS REGION THURSDAY INTO THURSDAY NIGHT. DISTURBANCES MOVING INTO OUR REGION FROM THE SOUTHWEST WILL COMBINE WITH THE DEEP MOISTURE IN PLACE...TO PRODUCE WIDESPREAD SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS DURING THE DAY FRIDAY...AND FRIDAY NIGHT. INSTABILITY COULD INCREASE FRIDAY INTO FRIDAY NIGHT WITH THE DEVELOPMENT OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... THE ACTIVATION OF STORM SPOTTERS...EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT... AND HAM RADIO OPERATORS WILL NOT BE REQUIRED DURING THE AFTERNOON AND EARLY EVENING. 06
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SHREVEPORT LA
126 PM CST WED FEB 01 2012
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0126 PM HAIL GILLHAM 34.17N 94.31W
02/01/2012 E0.75 INCH SEVIER AR PUBLIC
PENNY TO DIME SIZE HAIL
&&
04The Western Arkansas radar (KSRX), 143 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 19:39 UTC.
1 hail. Local standard time, as filed.
Hail of all sized was reported with the largest being a little smaller than a golf ball.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Oklahoma in 2012Every state in 2012This day in weather historyWarnings in Oklahoma, February 2012
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 356026.