EF1 Tornado — Nacogdoches, Texas

2024-07-08 · near Appleby, Nacogdoches, Texas

Event narrative

An EF-1 tornado with estimated maximum winds near 110 mph touched down about 1.5 miles southeast of Appleby along County Road 260, where large tree branches were snapped. A path of minor tree damage continued as the tornado tracked to the northwest across the intersection of Appleby Sand Road and Cedar Bluff Road. As the tornado crossed Burt Drive between Village Drive and FM 941, the extent of tree damage increased, where multiple hardwood and softwood trees were snapped. Once the tornado crossed Highway 59 just southwest of Appleby, it appeared to had lifted briefly before touching back down on County Road 112 just west of FM 2864 where more trees were snapped and uprooted. The tornado then crossed CR 116 where it caused significant damage to very large trees, before tracking across the corner of CR 117 and CR 118 where it tore the roof off of a single family home, with additional damage noted to other nearby homes. Additional tree damage occurred as the tornado crossed CR 915 and Highway 204, before lifting near CR 814.

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 → (31.7087, -94.5787)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1200116. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.