EF1 tornado in Caddo Parish, Louisiana

A strong EF-1 tornado with estimated maximum winds near 105 mph

touched down across a heavily wooded area north of Springridge-Texas

Line Road and west of Providence Road, where it tracked behind and adjacent to Providence Baptist Church, where multiple trees were snapped and uprooted, particularly in the church cemetery along Providence Road. The tornado moved northeast across the end of Adams and Sebastian Roads, where it was strongest and

widest, with numerous trees snapped and uprooted. At least a few

homes had trees fall on them at both of these locations, before the

tornado tracked across Highway 169 (Greenwood-Springridge Road),

where additional trees were snapped and uprooted. The tornado then

moved across Woolworth Road near and just north of the Caddo Parish

landfill, where additional trees were downed. It should be noted that

damaging southwest winds just south of the tornadic circulation downed

at least one tree and large limbs at the Caddo Parish landfill, although

access to the landfill was not available beyond the office area. The

tornado then entered the city limits in Southwest Shreveport in the

Newcastle subdivision, where multiple trees were snapped and uprooted.

At least two homes on Lytham Drive and one on North Heatherstone Drive

had trees fall on them, although the tornado began to weaken as it

crossed Dean Road/Cedar Creek Drive north of Bert Kouns Industrial Loop.

Damage was mostly confined to snapped large limbs along Brandon Drive,

Rosedown Place, and Twelve Oaks Drive, before the tornado crossed the

track and athletic field on the north side of Southwood High School.

No damage was observed to the school itself, although a large pine

tree was uprooted across the street at the Dollar General at the

corner of Walker Road and Mackey Lane. The tree crushed an

adjacent fence, and two vehicles in front of the dollar store,

while some shingles were lifted up on a southward facing private

apartment adjacent to the store. Additional large limbs were

snapped along Mackey Lane before the tornado finally lifted

shortly before reaching Summer Grove Baptist Church.

An upper level low pressure system over the Desert Southwest shifted east through the Intermountain West on May 6th, inducing surface low development over West Texas. This also resulted in a tightening pressure gradient across the Southern Plains and Lower Mississippi Valley, with increased southerly low level winds allowing for a warm front to shift north to the I-20 corridor of East Texas and North Louisiana before becoming stationary later in the day. A warm, moist, and unstable air mass developed during the 6th south of the front, as large scale forcing increased near and south of the front ahead of the upper trough. As a result, showers and thunderstorms, some of which became severe, developed across East Texas and North Louisiana, producing damaging winds, locally heavy rainfall, and isolated tornadoes. Given the already saturated grounds from heavy rainfall that fell only several days prior, flash flooding was also observed through the afternoon and evening.