Severe Thunderstorm Warning Issued for Parts of Arkansas and Oklahoma
This alert is no longer in effect.
NOAA issued it on May 16, 2026, 3 months ago. Warnings of this kind stay in effect for hours to a few days, so this page is a historical record of what was issued, not a current warning. For conditions where you are right now, check weather.gov (US), weather.gc.ca (Canada), the Met Office (UK), or the Bureau of Meteorology (Australia).
Areazine synthesizes this NWS weather alert directly from NOAA's official public data feed. See our methodology for full source attribution and refresh cadence.
NWS Tulsa has issued a Severe Thunderstorm Warning for southwestern Crawford County and northern Sebastian County in Arkansas, plus eastern Sequoyah and northeastern Le Flore counties in Oklahoma until 9:30 PM CDT.
Read this weather record in 30 seconds
- Record type
- Severe Thunderstorm Warning
- Affected area
- Northwestern Arkansas and Southeastern Oklahoma
- Issued
- May 16, 2026
- Issuing authority
- NWS Tulsa OK
Storm notices can cover different combinations of wind, hail, lightning, and rainfall. Use the original notice for the hazards and boundaries attached to this specific record.
Record status: historical. It was issued 3 months ago; use the issuing agency's live warning service for current conditions in Northwestern Arkansas and Southeastern Oklahoma.
Alert Details
A Severe Thunderstorm Warning was issued by the National Weather Service Tulsa OK at 8:44 PM CDT on May 8, 2026. The alert is effective immediately and expires at 9:30 PM CDT on May 8, 2026.
Affected Areas
The warning covers southwestern Crawford County in northwestern Arkansas, northern Sebastian County in west central Arkansas, eastern Sequoyah County in east central Oklahoma, and northeastern Le Flore County in southeastern Oklahoma. Locations in or near the path include Fort Smith, Van Buren, Cedarville, Greenwood, Alma, Barling, Pocola, Muldrow, Roland, Lavaca, Arkoma, Dyer, Hackett, Bonanza, Moffett, Rudy, Excelsior, Fort Smith Regional Airport, Short, and Bloomer. The storm affects Interstate 40 in Arkansas between mile markers 0 and 17, Interstate 40 in Oklahoma between mile markers 318 and 328, Interstate 540 between mile markers 1 and 14, and Interstate 49 between mile markers 22 and 24.
What You Should Do
Remain alert for a possible tornado. If you spot a tornado, go at once into the basement or a small central room in a sturdy structure. This storm is producing large hail; seek shelter now inside a sturdy structure and stay away from windows.
Expected Conditions
At 8:44 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located 6 miles southwest of Short, moving southeast at 40 mph. Hazards include two-inch hail and 60 mph wind gusts.
Timeline
The warning is in effect from 8:44 PM CDT until 9:30 PM CDT on May 8, 2026.
Original source: NOAA Official Notice ↗
Related Weather Alerts
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Two Areazine-derived peer sets for this NWS weather alert: nearest notices by body length and by same severity near the same agency date. Peers come from other categories so they are not the same-feed Related list above.
Similar body length
Nearest notices by article body length (1,474 characters here).
Similar severity timing
Same severity (high) notices issued closest in time to May 16, 2026.
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