Flash Flood — De Soto, Louisiana

2020-04-22 · near Mansfield, De Soto, Louisiana

Event narrative

A 48 year old man drowned in a rain swollen drainage ditch along Gibbs Street while trying to retrieve a trash can, after he was swept away by the rapid moving flood waters. His body was later found about 50-60 yards downstream.

Wider weather episode

An upper level trough ejected east-northeast across the Oklahoma/Texas Panhandles during the morning of April 22nd, before shifting across much of Oklahoma during the afternoon. Meanwhile, a warm front over Central and Southeast Texas into Southern Louisiana lifted slowly north into portions of East Texas and Central Louisiana during the afternoon. Large scale forcing quickly increased ahead of this trough such that showers and thunderstorms developed near and north of the front during the day, where cold temperatures aloft ahead of the trough and north of the warm front contributed to steep lapse rates, resulting in slightly elevated showers and thunderstorms to develop over much of East Texas and North Louisiana. The storms over Deep East Texas and the southern sections of North Central Louisiana near the front which were rooted closer to the surface became severe, producing more in the way of damaging winds and large hail, with storms farther north across Northwest Louisiana more elevated, producing more sporadic wind damage and large hail. Locally heavy rainfall over relatively saturated grounds also resulted in instances of flash flooding as well. These storms eventually pushed out of the region during the evening hours, with the passage of a weak cold front.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (32.0348, -93.7010)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 880057. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.