EF1 Tornado — Shelby, Texas

2024-07-08 · near Pauls Store, Shelby, Texas

Event narrative

An EF-1 tornado with estimated maximum winds near 105 mph touched down in the northern sections of the Sabine National Forest along FM 417 several miles east-southeast of the Campti community and tracked north-northwest, causing mainly timber damage before dissipating just before exiting the Sabine National Forest. The NWS Survey Team's access was extremely limited due to the lack of roads near the tornado's path. However, high-resolution satellite imagery and aerial imagery from the Angelina/Sabine National Forest Ranger District confirmed a nearly 7-mile path of this tornado, with many areas of timber damage caused by winds in excess of 100 mph. However, the high-end wind estimate was capped off at 105 mph based on the more limited areas of the NWS Survey Team ground survey.

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 → (31.8210, -93.9686)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1200128. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.