Name: Tornadoes in Texas, May 7, 2003
Start: 2003-05-07T01:10
End: 2003-05-07T01:39
Location: Texas

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 2

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Shreveport, LA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at May 6, 10:45 PM CST, 2 hours 25 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, May 6, 10:45 PM CST, 2 hours 25 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SHREVEPORT LA
1145 PM CDT TUE MAY 6 2003

WILL BE UPDATING THE ZONES TO INCLUDE TORNADO WATCH THAT
WILL RUN UNTIL 500 AM CDT FOR SOUTHEAST OKLAHOMA...SOUTHWEST
ARKANSAS...AND PARTS OF NORTHEAST TEXAS AND NORTHWEST AND NORTH
CENTRAL LOUISIANA. HAVE INCREASED THE CHANCE OF RAIN FOR SOME OF THE
WATCH AREA. ZONES ALREADY OUT. STRONG ROTATION IN STORMS ALREADY
DEVELOPING OVER NE TX.

6

.SHV...NONE.

Hazardous weather outlook, May 6, 11:00 AM CST, 14 hours 10 minutes before

ARZ050-051-059>061-070>073-LAZ001>006-010>014-017>022-OKZ077-TXZ096-
097-108>112-124>126-136>138-149>153-165>167-071100-

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SHREVEPORT LA
1200 PM CDT TUE MAY 6 2003

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR SOUTHEAST OKLAHOMA...NORTHEAST
TEXAS...SOUTHWEST ARKANSAS...NORTHWEST AND NORTH CENTRAL LOUISIANA.

.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT...
THERE IS A MODERATE RISK OF SEVERE WEATHER...ACROSS SOUTHWEST
ARKANSAS...EXTREME NORTHEAST TEXAS...SOUTHEAST OKLAHOMA.  THERE IS A
SLIGHT RISK OF SEVERE WEATHER OVER THE REMAINDER OF THE AREA...
INCLUDING THE INTERSTATE 20 CORRIDOR.

AN UPPER LEVEL DISTURBANCE WILL COMBINE WITH A VERY MOIST AND
UNSTABLE AIR MASS TO LIKELY PRODUCE SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS CAPABLE OF
PRODUCING LARGE HAIL. ALSO...VERTICAL WIND PROFILES SUGGEST THE
POTENTIAL FOR TORNADOES...SOME POSSIBLY SIGNIFICANT AND LONG
LIVED...THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING...ESPECIALLY ACROSS THE MODERATE
RISK AREA.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...WEDNESDAY THROUGH MONDAY...
NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.

.SPOTTER CALL TO ACTION STATEMENT...
ACTIVATION OF EMERGENCY MANAGERS...SKYWARN NETWORKS...AND STORM
SPOTTERS WILL LIKELY BE NEEDED THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT.

The radar

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 51 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 07:10 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

2 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.

Tornado, Harrison

When: May 7, 1:10 AM CST to 1:13 AM CST
Where: Harrison County, 1 mi NW of Baldwin
Rating: F0
Path length: 1.2 mi
Path width: 25 yd
Reported by: NWS STORM SURVEY
Coordinates: 32.733, -94.267

A strong cyclic supercell moved eastward across the county. This supercell had a history of producing a long track tornado to the west in northeast Texas, specifically Wood, Upshur, Harrison, and Marion Counties and Lincoln and Union Parish in north central Louisiana. Damage was confined to snapped and pushed over trees. No structures were present. This tornado continued into Marion County, TX and Caddo Parish, LA.

Tornado, Marion

When: May 7, 1:13 AM CST to 1:39 AM CST
Where: Marion County, 7 mi SW of Smithland
Rating: F0
Path length: 10.9 mi
Path width: 25 yd
Reported by: NWS STORM SURVEY
Coordinates: 32.750, -94.250

A strong cyclic supercell moved eastward across the county. This supercell had a history of producing a long track tornado to the west in northeast Texas, specifically Wood, Upshur, Harrison, and Marion Counties and Lincoln and Union Parish in north central Louisiana. Damage was confined to snapped and pushed over trees on the western and eastern of of its track, but in Marion County, Texas, the tornado was confined mainly over open water on Caddo Lake and Clinton Lake. No structures were present along the track. This tornado entered Marion County, TX from Harrison County, TX and continued into Caddo Parish, LA.

What these are

Tornado: A violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and extending from a thunderstorm, filed with its path, width and Fujita or Enhanced Fujita rating from the damage survey.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Texas in 2003 Every state in 2003 This day in weather history The tornado archive for Texas, 2003 Warnings in Texas, May 2003

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5354164, 5354165.