EF1 Tornado — Sabine, Texas

2024-07-08 · near Milam, Sabine, Texas

Event narrative

An EF-1 tornado with estimated maximum winds near 110 mph touched down along the western sections of Toledo Bend Reservoir near Holly Park Marina off of Carters Ferry Road. The tornado initially touched down as a waterspout on Toledo Bend, before moving ashore just south of Holly Park Marina, where it tossed and overturned a couple of RV's at an RV park. The tornado also threw a few boats, destroyed a boat dock, and a small fish cleaning station while also snapping a number of large hardwood trees. The tornado then moved back out over the open water before coming back ashore south of Nine Mile Road. Numerous trees were snapped and uprooted along East Hamilton Road as well as nearby privately owned land, before the tornado again moved back over the water and lifted.

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 → (31.5147, -93.7981)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1200099. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.