EF2 Tornado — De Soto, Louisiana

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

Event narrative

This is a continuation of the Northern Sabine Parish tornado. This EF-2 tornado, with estimated maximum winds near 127 mph, crossed Highway 175 in Southern DeSoto Parish, resulting in extensive tree damage along Parish Road 419 and Cross Road. At a refinery on Cross Road, two single-wide manufactured homes being used as offices were severely damaged. One was rolled onto its side, while the other was completely flipped with the walls and flooring separated from its undercarriage. A wide swath of trees were observed bowing to the north-northwest of this location. At the intersection of Highway 346 and Cross Road, extensive structural and tree damage was observed. Numerous hardwood and softwood trees were snapped with the trunks falling onto structures and vehicles. Two homes suffered significant loss of roofing, while a single-wide manufactured home sitting on cinder blocks was completely destroyed. This structure was pulled free from its anchoring cables, which could not be found. Almost all of the debris from the mobile home, including the steel undercarriage, was blown approximately 45 yards across the highway and wrapped around trees. The tornado continued north of Highway 346, snapping and uprooting several trees near Cross Road, Horton Road, and across DeSoto Fire Tower Road. The tornado tracked near the community of Naborton and crossed Highway 84 before turning northwest and lifting near the Carmel community. The total path length of this tornado was just over 25 miles as it tracked through Northern Sabine and Southern DeSoto Parishes.

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 → (31.8460, -93.5280)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1203653. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.