TornadoLookup

Home / Louisiana / Sabine

EF2 tornado in Sabine Parish, Louisiana

Tornado July 8, 2024 · Sabine Parish, Louisiana

EF2
Rating
1.4 mi
Path length
164 yd
Path width
1
Injury
$100K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 164 yards (0.09 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

An EF-2 tornado, with estimated maximum winds near 115 mph, touched down on the east side of Toledo Bend Reservoir near the shoreline south of Camp Road and west of Locus Road in far Northwest Sabine Parish west of the Union Springs community. This tornado tracked north near a gas platform where numerous trees were snapped and uprooted. The tornado then tracked north-northwest over Woodlake Drive where additional tree damage was observed along the roadway. A woman suffered a minor injury when debris entered her home along Woodlake Drive. The most extensive damage was found near the intersection of West Cove Court and Woodlake Drive, where one home had much of its roof ripped off and blown into the surrounding neighbors' yards. One of the 2x4 pieces of wood from this roof was found piercing through the home of a nearby neighbor. Aside from damage to this home, most of the trees in this area were either snapped or uprooted, causing additional damage to homes and vehicles and resulting in the low end EF-2 rating. The tornado continued to track to the north-northwest as it crossed Coker Worsham Road, where it snapped and uprooted additional trees. The tornado then lifted in an open field just north of Coker Worsham Road.

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 Union Spgs (31.8176, -93.8321).

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 1203717. 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.