Thunderstorm Wind in Webster Parish, Louisiana

A tree was blown down across Highway 79 just north of Grider Road northeast of Minden. A motorist was killed when the vehicle he was driving struck this fallen tree.

Warm, moist, and unstable air spread north across North and East Texas, North Louisiana, and extreme Southern Arkansas during the evening through the early morning hours of April 4th-5th, behind a warm front that lifted north through these areas. Meanwhile, an upper trough dug through Western Texas and into the Southern Plains during the afternoon and evening hours of the 4th, enhancing large scale forcing along and ahead of a dry line that developed and spread east across North-central Texas. This resulted in shower and thunderstorm development which rapidly intensified over this area, which spread east into East Texas during the late evening through the early morning hours of the 4th-5th. Given the extent of instability and the strong southerly low level jet in place, these storms became severe as they spread east across East Texas and North Louisiana, resulting in numerous reports of damaging winds as these storms organized into a quasi-linear convective system (QLCS) which quickly spread across the region through the pre-dawn hours. These storms exited the region to the east prior to sunrise on the 5th.