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EF1 tornado in Harrison County, Texas

Tornado July 8, 2024 · Harrison County, Texas

EF1
Rating
9.7 mi
Path length
270 yd
Path width
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 270 yards (0.15 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

An EF-1 tornado, with estimated maximum winds near 107 mph, touched down along FM 134 south of the Leigh community, and tracked northwest just east of Bill Coleman Road, snapping and uprooting multiple hardwood and softwood trees. The tornado then turned north, crossing Marshall Leigh Road. However, damage was inaccessible between Marshall Leigh Road and FM 2682 due to a lack of roadways. A consistent tornadic debris signature (TDS) from the Shreveport Doppler Radar led to high confidence that the tornado remained on the ground during this time. Additional tree damage was observed as the tornado crossed Highway 43 and then moved along Peter Chapel Road, before lifting near the intersection of Baldwin Road and Peter Chapel Road west of Karnack.

The wider storm

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.

Began near Lotta (32.5473, -94.1397).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

14 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1200257. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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