EF1 Tornado — De Soto, Louisiana

2024-07-08 · near Pelican, De Soto, Louisiana

Event narrative

An EF-1 tornado with estimated maximum winds near 86 mph touched down in the community of Pelican near the intersection of Jackson and Washington Streets, and moved northwest while nearly paralleling Highway 513 before lifting just south of Goudeau Road near the Oxford community. Damage consisted of several uprooted and snapped trees in Pelican and large limbs further north near Oxford.

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, 25 tornadoes touched down across portions of North Louisiana.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (31.8829, -93.5856)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1203532. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.