Several of you have sent pictures of what appears to be a funnel north of Ozark along the leading edge of the squall line. The National Weather Service is looking into this and considering a possible landspout tornado.
Tornadoes that occur with supercell thunderstorms are powerful and generally occur from the top-down. A landspout is similar to a water spout that occurs over oceans and develops from the bottom-up.
This picture was sent into us by 5NEWS Viewer, Kendra, and appears to show rising air condensing into the leading edge of the thunderstorm.
Caitlyn McChristian sent this picture to us and it does appear to show a landspout tornado in contact with the ground near White Rock, AR.
Although winds within a landspout are typically weaker than supercell tornadoes like what we had in Mayflower, AR the winds can still reach speeds from 60-100mph and can certainly do damage. By definition, a landspout is categorized as a tornado by the Weather Service as "a rotating column of air in contact with the ground".
Here's a closer shot sent to us from Toby Hogan which also shows air rising into the thunderstorms. The air was rotating at the time the picture was taken.
This shot from, Bill, a viewer near Ozark, AR shows the low cloud which was also said to be rotating at the time the picture was taken.
If the National Weather Service is able to find any evidence of damage from this, it will be classified as a tornado as, officially, there is no distinction between different types of tornadoes.
As always, thanks for the pictures!
-Garrett