As temperatures soared into the triple digits during the afternoon of the 28th, isolated showers and thunderstorms developed over South Central Arkansas and North Central Louisiana, along a weak backdoor surface front that drifted southwest into the region. The very hot air mass resulted in moderate instability developing over this area, with additional showers and thunderstorms rapidly…
Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.
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.
The episode as NWS SHV wrote it up.
As temperatures soared into the triple digits during the afternoon of the 28th, isolated showers and thunderstorms developed over South Central Arkansas and North Central Louisiana, along a weak backdoor surface front that drifted southwest into the region. The very hot air mass resulted in moderate instability developing over this area, with additional showers and thunderstorms rapidly developing along resultant outflow boundaries while propagating west southwest across the area. Several severe thunderstorm clusters resulted, with numerous reports of downed trees and power lines across El Dorado and southern Union County Arkansas/northwest Union Parish Louisiana, as well as portions of North Central Louisiana to the south. These storms diminished during the late evening hours with the loss of heating/instability.
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 Jul 28, 3:25 PM CST, 2 hours 25 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SHREVEPORT LA 425 PM CDT SAT JUL 28 2012 .DISCUSSION... THE FOUR STATE REGION WILL BE UNDER THE CONTROL OF AN UPPER LEVEL RIDGE OF HIGH PRESSURE CENTERED OVER THE SOUTHERN PLAINS AND CENTRAL SECTIONS OF THE COUNTRY. THIS SYSTEM WILL PROVIDE HOT TEMPERATURES TO THE FORECAST AREA AND GIVEN THE DEW POINT TEMPERATURES AND RELATIVE HUMIDITY LEVELS HIGH HEAT INDEX VALUES. WITH A RISE AND FLUCTUATION OF THE DEW POINTS...HEAT INDEX VALUES COULD CLIMB TO HEAT ADVISORY LEVELS. AS DISTURBANCES ROUND THE EASTERN AND SOUTHERN PERIPHERY OF THE UPPER RIDGE OF HIGH PRESSURE...THERE MAY BE ISOLATED THUNDERSTORM DEVELOPMENT. HAVE INCLUDED SMALL CHANCES WHERE CONVECTION MAY OCCUR...BUT WITH A NORTHWEST FLOW PATTERN OUTFLOW BOUNDARIES COULD SEND THUNDERSTORMS OUTSIDE OF WHERE CURRENT RAIN CHANCES HAVE BEEN INSERTED. TOWARD NEXT WEEKEND A BROAD TROUGH OF LOW PRESSURE MOVES ACROSS THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL SECTIONS OF THE COUNTRY AND MAY SEND SOME RELIEF IN THE FORM OF COOLER TEMPERATURES AND POSSIBLY BAND OF SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS. /06/ && .AVIATION... CONCERNING THE ARKLATEX...VFR SHOULD PREVAIL FOR MUCH OF THE 00Z TAF PERIOD WITH A FEW/SCT HIGH BASED CU 6-8KFT. ALTHOUGH...A WEAK SFC OUTFLOW BOUNDARY STRETCHES FROM KLIT TO NEAR KMLU. A SMALL CLUSTER OF CBS IS IN THE VCTY AND OTHERS MAY JOIN IN WITH A DECENT CU FIELD. WE WILL AMEND KELD/KMLU IF NEED BE. OTHERWISE...BRIEF MVFR VIS FOR FG/HZ WOULD BE THE ONLY OTHER ISSUE. SFC WINDS ARE VARIABLE VEERING TO NE FOR SOME IN THE WAKE OF THE SFC BOUNDARY...5 KTS OR LESS FOR THE OVERNIGHT. ALOFT...WE SEE VEERING DOWN INTO THE LOWER LEVELS FROM BROAD NE FLOW 5-25KFT 20-40KTS SFC UP TO 5 IS NOW LIGHT NORTH. && .PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS... SHV 75 101 75 102 75 / 0 0 0 0 0 MLU 73 99 74 100 74 / 20 0 0 0 0 DEQ 75 104 74 104 75 / 0 0 0 0 0 TXK 74 102 74 103 75 / 0 0 0 0 0 ELD 73 102 74 102 75 / 20 0 0 0 0 TYR 76 102 76 102 77 / 0 0 0 0 0 GGG 75 101 75 102 76 / 0 0 0 0 0 LFK 74 100 76 100 76 / 0 0 0 0 0 && .SHV WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... AR...NONE. LA...NONE. OK...NONE. TX...NONE. && 06/24
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SHREVEPORT LA 1217 PM CDT SAT JUL 28 2012 ARZ050-051-059>061-070>073-LAZ001>006-010>014-017>022-OKZ077- TXZ096-097-108>112-124>126-136>138-149>153-165>167-291100- SEVIER-HOWARD-LITTLE RIVER-HEMPSTEAD-NEVADA-MILLER-LAFAYETTE- COLUMBIA-UNION AR-CADDO-BOSSIER-WEBSTER-CLAIBORNE-LINCOLN- UNION LA-DE SOTO-RED RIVER-BIENVILLE-JACKSON-OUACHITA-SABINE LA- NATCHITOCHES-WINN-GRANT-CALDWELL-LA SALLE-MCCURTAIN-BOWIE- FRANKLIN-TITUS-CAMP-MORRIS-CASS-WOOD-UPSHUR-MARION-SMITH-GREGG- HARRISON-CHEROKEE-RUSK-PANOLA-NACOGDOCHES-SHELBY-ANGELINA- SAN AUGUSTINE-SABINE TX- 1217 PM CDT SAT JUL 28 2012 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF SOUTH CENTRAL ARKANSAS...SOUTHWEST ARKANSAS...NORTH CENTRAL LOUISIANA... NORTHWEST LOUISIANA...SOUTHEAST OKLAHOMA...EAST TEXAS AND NORTHEAST TEXAS. .DAY ONE...THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT... NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SUNDAY THROUGH FRIDAY... NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... ACTIVATION OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PERSONNEL...AMATEUR RADIO OPERATORS...AND STORM SPOTTERS WILL NOT BE NEEDED. 06
SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SHREVEPORT LA
606 PM CDT SAT JUL 28 2012
LAZ013-014-021-282345-
CALDWELL-JACKSON-OUACHITA-
606 PM CDT SAT JUL 28 2012
...SIGNIFICANT WEATHER ADVISORY...
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN SHREVEPORT HAS ISSUED A SIGNIFICANT
WEATHER ADVISORY...EFFECTIVE UNTIL 645 PM CDT...FOR THE FOLLOWING
PARISHES...
IN NORTH CENTRAL LOUISIANA...
OUACHITA...JACKSON AND CALDWELL...
INCLUDING THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS...
RICHWOOD...
AT 557 PM CDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE METEOROLOGISTS WERE
DETECTING A STRONG THUNDERSTORM 6 MILES SOUTH OF RICHWOOD...OR 10
MILES SOUTHEAST OF BROWNSVILLE-BAWCOMVILLE...MOVING SOUTHWEST AT 20
MPH.
SMALL HAIL...AND WINDS AROUND 40 MPH ARE EXPECTED WITH THIS STORM.
05SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SHREVEPORT LA
619 PM CDT SAT JUL 28 2012
LAZ018>020-290015-
GRANT-NATCHITOCHES-WINN-
619 PM CDT SAT JUL 28 2012
...SIGNIFICANT WEATHER ADVISORY...
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN SHREVEPORT HAS ISSUED A SIGNIFICANT
WEATHER ADVISORY...EFFECTIVE UNTIL 715 PM CDT...FOR THE FOLLOWING
PARISHES...
IN NORTHWEST LOUISIANA...
NATCHITOCHES...
IN NORTH CENTRAL LOUISIANA...
GRANT AND WINN...
INCLUDING THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS...
MONTGOMERY...
AT 618 PM CDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE METEOROLOGISTS WERE
DETECTING A STRONG THUNDERSTORM 10 MILES SOUTH OF WINNFIELD...MOVING
SOUTHWEST AT 15 MPH.
SMALL HAIL...AND WINDS AROUND 40 MPH ARE EXPECTED WITH THIS STORM.
05The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
6 thunderstorm wind, 1 hail. Local standard time, as filed.
A tree was downed onto a powerline along Hwy. 4 northwest of Columbia, Louisiana.
Large tree limbs were downed in Atlanta, Louisiana.
Many large limbs were blown down in Sikes, Louisiana.
A large tree was blown down in Dodson, Louisiana.
A large tree was blown down onto powerlines on Hwy. 71 in the St. Maurice community.
Several trees were downed between Spearsville and Junction City, Louisiana.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Louisiana in 2012Every state in 2012This day in weather historyWarnings in Louisiana, July 2012
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: 387076, 387077, 387080, 387081, 387083, 387085, 387086.