EF1 Tornado — Cherokee, Texas

2024-07-08 · near Alto, Cherokee, Texas

Event narrative

An EF-1 tornado with estimated maximum winds near 105 mph touched down along Highway 294 about 1.5 miles west of Alto, where numerous trees were snapped and uprooted. A single family home along Highway 294 had its metal roof peeled off, with numerous adjacent trees snapped and uprooted. The tornado then lifted shortly thereafter in an open pasture near CR 2328.

Wider weather episode

Tropical Storm Beryl briefly strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane with 80 mph winds as it made landfall along the Southeast Texas coast near Matagorda Bay during the early morning hours of July 8th, and tracked north-northeast across East Texas and into Southwest Arkansas during the afternoon and evening hours. While Beryl weakened into a tropical storm over portions of Deep East Texas by mid-afternoon, very strong wind shear and helicity existed near and east of the center, contributing to the largest tornado outbreak in NWS Shreveport history, as well as with any landfalling tropical system. A total of 43 tornadoes were confirmed through NWS surveys across East Texas, North Louisiana, and Southwest Arkansas, before Beryl weakened into a depression by late afternoon over East Texas. As a part of this outbreak, fifteen tornadoes touched down across portions of East Texas.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (31.6498, -95.0968)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1200082. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.