Lightning in Webster Parish, Louisiana

A lightning strike from overnight storms started a fire at the home of the 73-year old victim, who was found deceased in his bedroom. Two cats also perished in the home. Following an assessment from fire investigators and nearby surveillance cameras, the fire was confirmed to be started by lightning.

Supercell thunderstorms developed toward midday across the middle Red River Valley along and south of a stalled frontal boundary. These thunderstorms progressed east southeast with upper 80s temperatures on the warm side of the boundary with dew points exceeding 75 degrees. Mid-level lapse rates of 7-8 C/km overspread this very moist low-level air mass over a rather broad west-to-east corridor, supporting extreme instability upwards of 4500 J/kg well downstream of the upscale-growing convection. Coinciding this corridor of extreme buoyancy was very strong effective bulk shear near 65 kts along with hodographs that were modestly curved at the low levels and elongated above 3 km AGL. Numerous local storm reports were documented of large hail and damaging wind gusts across parts of North Louisiana throughout the event. Unfortunately, a 73 year old male was killed in a fire ignited after lightning struck his home near Shongaloo in Northern Webster Parish.