EF0 Tornado — Gregg, Texas

2024-07-08 · near Elderville, Gregg, Texas

Event narrative

This is a continuation of the Northern Rusk County tornado. This EF-0 tornado, with estimated maximum winds near 85 mph, tracked northwest into Southeast Gregg County across the East Texas Regional Airport. Sporadic tree damage occurred just south of the airport, but as the tornado crossed over onto the airport property, it damaged several hangars by knocking down or twisting the large metal hangar doors, while ripping off some side paneling to the hangars. Two nearby stop signs were also twisted at the base. Additional tree damage also occurred on the west side of Highway 322 across from the airport before lifting shortly thereafter just north of FM 2204.

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 → (32.3700, -94.7120)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1200220. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.