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EF1 tornado in Sabine Parish, Louisiana

Tornado December 26, 2024 · Sabine Parish, Louisiana

EF1
Rating
1.9 mi
Path length
220 yd
Path width
$35K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 220 yards (0.12 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 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

A brief EF-1 tornado with estimated maximum winds near 100 mph touched down over the waters of Toledo Bend Reservoir, and moved northeast through a cove of the lake and ripped the sheet metal panels from several boat docks. The tornado flipped one floating boat house with the boat still inside its cradle. The tornado moved onshore, damaged a porch awning, and removed some metal roof panels from a couple of manufactured homes along Amanda Drive. Numerous large tree limbs were downed in this area, and a couple of hardwood and softwood trees were snapped. The tornado continued northeast along Yvonne Drive, crossed another cove of Toledo Bend Reservoir, and crossed Lee Street and Bull Run into a new subdivision of single family residences. One of these homes sustained minor roof damage, consisting of the loss of a few roof panels. The tornado crossed Highway 1215 and produced a significant swath of tree damage. Numerous hardwoods and softwoods were snapped and uprooted. One hardwood tree fell onto a home that was mostly constructed of metal, completely destroying it. This was also the most concentrated area of damage from this tornado. The tornado then began to weaken at this point as it crossed yet another cove of Toledo Bend Reservoir and moved back over land, uprooting a large pine tree and downing some small limbs before lifting along Flora Lane just north and west of Highway 1215.

The wider storm

An upper trough moving out of the Rockies aided in the development of a surface low along a frontal boundary over East Texas. Scattered strong to severe thunderstorms developed by early afternoon in an environment characterized by CAPE values around 1000 J/kg and strong low-level shear. A couple of isolated supercells developed across Deep East Texas and Western Louisiana. At the same time, most of the thunderstorms congealed into a linear complex, which moved east across East Texas and Northern Louisiana.

Began near Zwolle Ammons Arpt (31.5144, -93.7087).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

1 more tornado the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1229053. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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