EF1 Tornado — Panola, Texas

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

Event narrative

An EF-1 tornado with estimated maximum winds near 110 mph touched down about 4 miles northeast of Tatum in Northwest Panola County, about one-half mile southeast of Highway 43 along FM 959, where several large limbs were snapped. This initial tornado touchdown was confirmed by video from homeowners along FM 959, with the tornado tracking northwest before crossing Highway 43. Numerous trees were snapped and uprooted, with several homes had portions of their siding and metal roofing peeled off. The tornado moved over open pastureland, snapping a few more trees before crossing over into extreme Northeast Rusk 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 → (32.3541, -94.4591)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1200239. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.