Around 4 p.m., a thunderstorm moved north of a warm front and into the Greater Fort Smith area. The storm showed supercell structures and was "elevated" with golfball and baseball size hail occurring.
One of the areas hit the hardest in the hailstorm was the Golden Living Center in south Fort Smith.
Some employees say the hail was at least golf ball-sized.
“I've been in hail, but I don't think I’ve ever been in hail that was that large,” Lisa Wroten, a registered nurse at the center, said. “I mean, it was huge.”
The storm only lasted a few minutes, but it left major damage.
“We were like, ‘Oh my gosh!" because some people's cars -- back windows were busted out," another employee, Konztance Wright, said.
Wright was one of the employees whose car got some of the worst damage.
“I came out and check on my car, and found the back window all busted out, dents everywhere, front window is kind of cracked,” Wright said.
But, Fort Smith wasn't the only area in the River Valley to see hail.
“Shortly after I heard it on the radio, it's like it was moving quick,” volunteer firefighter, Branden Blount, said. “It started out with just little bitty pea-sized, and out of nowhere, it hammered.”
Blount is a captain at the District 6 Volunteer Fire Department in Crawford County.
He said when hail comes there's not much they can do, but they will help in any way they can.
“Unless somebody gets hurt or something if they're hit in the head or something while it's outside, but we're definitely there to help if you need to put tarps up, broken windshield stuff like that,” Blount said.
Blount said thankfully no injuries have been reported in Crawford County, and Fort Smith police say there were several reports of vehicle damage, but no injuries have been reported.
