Scattered thunderstorms developed during the afternoon hours in a warm, moist, and slightly unstable air mass that was in place across northwestern Arkansas. No severe weather occurred but a young man was killed by lightning on Beaver Lake in Benton County.
Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS TSA wrote it up.
Scattered thunderstorms developed during the afternoon hours in a warm, moist, and slightly unstable air mass that was in place across northwestern Arkansas. No severe weather occurred but a young man was killed by lightning on Beaver Lake in Benton County.
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 Tulsa, OK wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jun 13, 1:52 PM CST, 1 hour 8 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TULSA OK
252 PM CDT SAT JUN 13 2015
.DISCUSSION...
WILL CONTINUE THE FLASH FLOOD WATCH THAT IS IN PLACE FOR PORTIONS
OF NORTHEAST OKLAHOMA...MAINLY NORTH OF INTERSTATE 44 AS IS FOR NOW.
MANY LOCATIONS ACROSS THIS AREA SAW CONSIDERABLE RAINFALL AMOUNTS
FRIDAY NIGHT INTO THIS MORNING AND WILL NOT TAKE TOO MUCH RAIN FOR
ADDITIONAL FLASH FLOODING TO OCCUR.
IT WILL BECOME INCREASINGLY DIFFICULT OVER THE NEXT FEW DAYS TO PIN
POINT WHERE THE SHOWER AND THUNDERSTORM ACTIVITY WILL OCCUR AS THE
AIRMASS BECOMES INCREASINGLY TROPICAL AND THERE WILL BE NO SYNOPTIC
LOW LEVEL FORCING AVAILABLE. WHAT WE WILL HAVE IS A SERIES OF MID-LEVEL
SHORTWAVES THAT WILL AFFECT THE AREA WITH EVENTUALLY A WEAK SHEAR AXIS
DEVELOPING ACROSS THE AREA EARLY NEXT WEEK. SO...WILL KEEP HIGH CHANCE
TO LIKELY POPS FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS ACROSS THE AREA. THE THUNDERSTORMS
WILL BE CAPABLE OF PRODUCING VERY HEAVY RAIN IN A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME
DUE TO THE TROPICAL NATURE OF THE AIRMASS. THIS WILL LIKELY LEAD TO
FLOODING OF LOW LYING AREAS AND AREAS THAT DRAIN POORLY. THERE WILL BE
A LIMITED THREAT FOR SEVERE WEATHER WITH LARGE HAIL AND STRONG GUSTY
WINDS THE CONCERN.
THE FORECAST BECOMES A LITTLE MORE INTERESTING AS WE MOVE TOWARDS
MID-WEEK AS THE TROPICAL DISTURBANCE CURRENTLY OVER THE YUCATAN
PENINSULA POTENTIALLY MOVES INTO THE REGION. AT THE VERY LEAST...SOME
MOISTURE ASSOCIATED WITH THIS DISTURBANCE WILL AFFECT THE AREA MID-WEEK.
THE MODELS DIFFER IN TIMING IN MOVING THE DISTURBANCE ACROSS PORTIONS
OF THE FORECAST AREA WITH THE GFS THE FASTEST. WITH THIS IN MIND...THE FORECAST
FOR MID TO LATE WEEK WILL HAVE TO MONITORED CLOSELY FOR MORE HEAVY RAINFALL
IN ASSOCIATION WITH THIS FEATURE.
&&
.PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS...
TUL 72 85 72 86 / 70 50 50 50
FSM 71 87 72 87 / 60 50 50 70
MLC 72 85 72 86 / 50 30 40 50
BVO 69 84 69 85 / 70 60 60 50
FYV 68 83 69 83 / 60 40 60 70
BYV 68 83 69 83 / 80 60 40 80
MKO 69 85 70 85 / 60 40 50 60
MIO 70 84 69 84 / 70 40 50 50
F10 71 84 71 86 / 60 30 30 50
HHW 71 85 71 86 / 60 50 60 40
&&
.TSA WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
OK...FLASH FLOOD WATCH UNTIL 1 PM SUNDAY FOR OKZ054-OKZ055-OKZ056-
OKZ057-OKZ058-OKZ059-OKZ060-OKZ061-OKZ064.
AR...NONE.
&&
LONG TERM....10HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TULSA OK 100 PM CDT SAT JUN 13 2015 ARZ001-002-010-011-019-020-029-OKZ049-053>076-141000- ADAIR OK-BENTON AR-CARROLL AR-CHEROKEE OK-CHOCTAW OK-CRAIG OK- CRAWFORD AR-CREEK OK-DELAWARE OK-FRANKLIN AR-HASKELL OK-LATIMER OK- LE FLORE OK-MADISON AR-MAYES OK-MCINTOSH OK-MUSKOGEE OK-NOWATA OK- OKFUSKEE OK-OKMULGEE OK-OSAGE OK-OTTAWA OK-PAWNEE OK-PITTSBURG OK- PUSHMATAHA OK-ROGERS OK-SEBASTIAN AR-SEQUOYAH OK-TULSA OK-WAGONER OK- WASHINGTON OK-WASHINGTON AR- 100 PM CDT SAT JUN 13 2015 ...LOCALLY HEAVY RAINFALL AND FLASH FLOODING POSSIBLE THROUGH THE WEEKEND... THIS OUTLOOK IS FOR NORTHWEST AND WEST CENTRAL ARKANSAS AS WELL AS MUCH OF EASTERN OKLAHOMA. .DAY ONE...THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT. SEVERE THUNDERSTORM. RISK...LIMITED. AREA...EASTERN OKLAHOMA AND NORTHWEST ARKANSAS. ONSET...THIS AFTERNOON. FLASH FLOOD. RISK...LIMITED. AREA...NORTHEAST OKLAHOMA. ONSET...THIS AFTERNOON. HEAVY RAIN. RISK...LIMITED. AREA...EASTERN OKLAHOMA AND NORTHWEST ARKANSAS. ONSET...THIS AFTERNOON. DISCUSSION... AREAS OF SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL CONTINUE TO DEVELOP THIS AFTERNOON AS THE ATMOSPHERE DESTABILIZES WITH ADDITIONAL SURFACE HEATING. WHILE A MARGINAL SEVERE WEATHER THREAT FOR DAMAGING WINDS EXISTS THROUGH EARLY EVENING...THE MAIN CONCERN WILL BE POTENTIAL FLOODING FROM ADDITIONAL HEAVY RAINFALL. PARTS OF NORTHEAST OKLAHOMA RECEIVED BETWEEN 2 AND 5 INCHES OF RAINFALL YESTERDAY...AND PERIODS OF HEAVY RAINFALL WILL AGAIN BE POSSIBLE ACROSS THIS GENERAL AREA. AREAS OF NORTHEAST OKLAHOMA GENERALLY ALONG AND NORTH OF INTERSTATE 44 REMAIN IN A FLASH FLOOD WATCH THROUGH SUNDAY AFTERNOON. SPOTTER AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT ACTION STATEMENT... LOCAL SPOTTER ACTIVATION MAY BE NEEDED. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SUNDAY THROUGH FRIDAY. SUNDAY...THUNDERSTORM POTENTIAL...HIGH WIND POTENTIAL...HEAVY RAIN POTENTIAL. MONDAY...THUNDERSTORM POTENTIAL...HEAVY RAIN POTENTIAL. TUESDAY THROUGH FRIDAY...THUNDERSTORM POTENTIAL. EXTENDED DISCUSSION... MOIST SOUTHWESTERLY FLOW ALOFT WILL RESULT IN PERIODS OF SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE WEEKEND AND INTO EARLY NEXT. ADDITIONAL HEAVY RAINFALL IS LIKELY...ESPECIALLY ACROSS NORTHEAST OKLAHOMA. THERE ARE SOME SIGNS THAT A WEAK TROPICAL SYSTEM COULD LIFT INTO THE AREA LATER NEXT WEEK...BRINGING ADDITIONAL HEAVY RAINFALL. WWW.SRH.NOAA.GOV/TULSA CONTAINS ADDITIONAL INFORMATION.
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TULSA OK
1009 AM CDT SAT JUN 13 2015
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0910 AM FLASH FLOOD 9 W NOWATA 36.70N 95.80W
06/13/2015 NOWATA OK PUBLIC
ROAD IMPASSABLE DUE TO HIGH WATER ON E0240 ROAD.
&&
RBDThe Springfield radar (KSGF), 101 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 21:00 UTC.
1 lightning. Local standard time, as filed.
Three people were on a boat fishing when it was struck by lightning. One of the three people died from the lightning strike.
As the offices recorded each death: direct deaths were caused by the weather itself, indirect ones by something it set in motion.
| Event | Date | Age | Sex | Where | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lightning, Benton | 2015-06-13 | 22 | Male | Boating | Direct |
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Arkansas in 2015Every state in 2015This day in weather historyWarnings in Arkansas, June 2015
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: 571233.