EF1 Tornado — Harrison, Texas

2024-07-08 · near Cave Spgs, Harrison, Texas

Event narrative

This is a continuation of the Northeast Rusk County tornado. This EF-1 tornado, with maximum estimated winds near 110 mph, crossed the Sabine River into Southwest Harrison County about 8 miles south of Hallsville, tracking over FM 2625 and snapping/uprooting multiple trees before crossing FM 2625 a second time to the northwest. Tree damage was not as significant when the tornado crossed a second time, as it lifted just north of FM 968 west of FM 450.

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 → (32.3890, -94.5070)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1200248. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.