Lightning in Grant Parish, Louisiana

Three family members died in a house explosion as a result of lightning striking near the home. It was determined that the explosion was caused by a gas leak and the lightning strike. The blast shattered windows of surrounding homes as well. Debris from the explosion was found within a 200-foot radius of the home tht was totally destroyed in the blast. Two other neighboring residents were also injured.

A warm front moved northward during the day of 12/19 and became stationary near the Arkansas/Louisiana border. An upper level storm system approached the region from the southern plains and provided the dynamics needed for scattered to numerous showers and thunderstorms to form across all of northeast Texas, southeast Oklahoma, southwest Arkansas and northwest Louisiana. During the late evening hours of 12/19...the storms initially were elevated in nature...producing large hail. Towards the overnight and predawn hours of 12/20...the storms across deep east Texas and west central Louisiana became more surface based producing strong and damaging wind gusts and frequent lightning.