EF2 Tornado — Sabine, Louisiana

2024-07-08 · near Belmont, Sabine, Louisiana

Event narrative

An EF-2 tornado with estimated maximum winds near 127 mph touched down along Highway 175 just north of the Belmont community in Northern Sabine Parish. The tornado produced sporadic tree damage as it travelled north-northwest near Spring Ridge and crossed Moffett Lane. The tornado widened considerably as it moved through the Pleasant Hill community, where the vast majority of damage consisted of snapped hardwood and softwood trees. However, one structure sustained some loss of metal roof panels. The tornado continued north producing more tree damage along Antioch Church Road before entering Southern DeSoto Parish. While the tornado was strongest (EF-2) in Southern DeSoto Parish, only high end EF-1 damage between 100-105 mph was found in Northern Sabine Parish in and north of Pleasant Hill.

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 → (31.7420, -93.5094)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1203649. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.