TornadoLookup

Home / Louisiana / De Soto

EF2 tornado in De Soto Parish, Louisiana

Tornado July 8, 2024 · De Soto Parish, Louisiana

EF2
Rating
25.0 mi
Whole path
900 yd
Path width
$300K
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Sabine Parish → De Soto Parish; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 900 yards (0.51 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 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

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.

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, 25 tornadoes touched down across portions of North Louisiana.

Began near Pelican (31.8460, -93.5280).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1203653. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

Tornadoes near your address

See every tornado that passed near a place you know, measured to its path.