EF1 Tornado — Bowie, Texas

2024-07-08 · near Wake Vlg, Bowie, Texas

Event narrative

An EF-1 tornado with estimated maximum winds near 90 mph touched down between King and Celeste Avenues just north of Highway 82 on the Texas side of Texarkana, where several hardwood and softwood trees were uprooted, and large limbs were snapped. While some structural damage was noted along the tornado's track, it was primarily attributed to falling trees and limbs onto buildings and vehicles. There were a few instances though where the tornadic winds lifted the roofing off of two homes and an older retail building. The tornado lifted shortly after entering Beverly Park.

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 → (33.4357, -94.0711)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1200332. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.