EF1 tornado in Sabine Parish, Louisiana

An EF-1 tornado with estimated maximum winds near 105 mph briefly touched down near Shorty Poston Road off of LA 392 just west of Hornbeck in extreme Southern Sabine Parish. The tornado mostly snapped hardwood and softwood trees as it crossed the road and then passed over a single family home. The home sustained shingle damage and a few of its brick pillars along its porch were damaged. The tornado also damaged a portion of the roof of a small metal outbuilding before continuing on to snap several more trees. The tornado then lifted in a forested area behind the single family home. Approximately 50 trees were snapped and twisted, with a few trees uprooted as well. This same storm that produced this tornado went on to produce an EF-2 tornado about 10 minutes later in the Peason community in Southeast Sabine Parish.

A strong upper level low pressure system tracked east across the Red River Valley of Southern Oklahoma and North Texas during the afternoon of January 8th, before shifting across Northeast Texas into Southwest Arkansas during the early morning hours of the 9th. Ahead of this low, strong southerly low level winds rapidly transported low level moisture back north across the region, with large scale forcing and elevated instability ahead of the low contributing to areas of showers and embedded thunderstorms over East Texas, North Louisiana, and Southwest Arkansas. Meanwhile, a warm front had spread north into portions of Deep East Texas and Central Louisiana during the late evening and early morning hours, with increasing instability and low level wind shear fueling the development of strong to severe thunderstorms over these areas. These storms produced damaging winds which downed trees and power lines, and also spawned two tornadoes in Southern Sabine Parish before gradually weakening as they shifted northeast away from the front.