EF1 Tornado — Panola, Texas

2024-07-08 · near Lorraine, Panola, Texas

Event narrative

This is a continuation of the Southwest Caddo Parish tornado. This EF-1 tornado, with estimated maximum winds of 110 mph, continued northwest across State Line Road in the Bethany community, where several homes and other structures were damaged by downed trees. The tornado was at its widest and strongest as it crossed CR 332, where multiple trees were snapped and uprooted, the roof was partially removed off of a barn, and a metal roof was partially lifted off of a home. As the tornado crossed Highway 79, additional large trees were snapped and uprooted, with trees falling and significantly damaging three homes. The tornado continued to snap and uproot additional trees as it moved northwest before crossing into Southeast Harrison County.

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 → (32.3577, -94.0429)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1200184. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.