EF2 Tornado — Bossier, Louisiana

2024-07-08 · near Ninock, Bossier, Louisiana

Event narrative

This is a continuation of the Northern Red River Parish EF-2 tornado. This tornado, with estimated maximum winds near 115 mph, crossed Loggy Bayou Road and Highway 515 and across Highway 71 just west of the Loggy Bayou Wildlife Management Area, where several trees were snapped and uprooted, and minor to moderate structural damage occurred due to fallen trees and limbs downed onto these structures. The tornado then crossed Highway 154 east of Elm Grove, where approximately 10 trees were snapped/uprooted at a residence, with an intense burst of tree damage observed farther north on Robinson Road. The tornado continued north-northwest and paralleled Highway 157, where numerous hardwood and softwood trees were snapped near and north of Wilkerson Road, before crossing Highway 527 and Goathill Road. Extensive damage was observed to some structures and vehicles from fallen trees as the tornado crossed Sligo Road, before the tornado entered the eastern sections of Barksdale Air Force Base. The damage over the eastern sections of Barksdale Air Force Base was over heavily forested areas, with numerous softwoods snapped and uprooted, before the tornado crossed Interstate 20 and Highway 79 west of Haughton where several trees were snapped and uprooted, large limbs snapped, and some damage was observed to homes due to falling trees, with downed power poles and power lines, with the more extensive damage noted on Wafer Road and Cindy Lane. The tornado continued on a north-northwest trajectory with extensive damage again noted to homes from fallen trees on Bellevue Road at Busby Road and Bellevue Farm Drive before crossing Red Chute Bayou. Extensive damage was again observed near East Linton Road, Crouch Road, and Linton Bellevue Roads, where several homes were damaged from fallen trees. Two fatalities were reported on East Linton Road when a tree fell on a mobile home, killing a 31 year old woman and her grandmother, while injuring one child. The tornado nearly paralleled Crouch Road before crossing Highway 162 north and east of Cypress Bayou Reservoir. The strongest winds with the tornado were found along Crouch Road east of Benton by Civil Air Patrol imagery, which depicted high-end tree damage consistent with lower EF-2 wind speeds. More tree and power line damage was observed on Old Plain Dealing Road before the tornado finally lifted just north of Highway 2 west of Plain Dealing. In all, 164 manufactured and single family homes were damaged or affected by this tornado throughout Bossier Parish. The total path length of the Northern Red River/Central Bossier Parish tornado was nearly 53.5 miles.

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 → (32.2350, -93.4340)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1203674. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.