EF1 tornado, New London to Longview Eastside Ar, Texas, March 18, 2008

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mph

   Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

4. EF3136 to 165 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. EF5over 200 mph

   Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

7. Unrated

   The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

Rating

EF1

Date

March 18, 2008

Touchdown

8:36 PM CDT (01:36 UTC)

Lifted

9:09 PM CDT (02:09 UTC)

On the ground

33 minutes

Path length

20.5 miles (33.0 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$3.5 million

Counties

Rusk and Gregg counties

Touchdown point

32.254, -94.892

Lift-off point

32.510, -94.715

Record number

0803181936-01

A deep upper level low pressure system across northern Mexico into the Big Bend area of west Texas moved very slowly towards the Southern Plains and Lower Mississippi Valley during the afternoon of March 18th into the overnight hours. Convection developed along and north of the interstate 30 corridor of northeast Texas, southeast Oklahoma and southwest Arkansas with widespread flash flooding reported across portions of the region. Along with the flash flooding...severe thunderstorms produced tornadoes across portions of northeast Texas during the late evening hours of March 18th as well.

An EF1 tornado touched down near the community of New London, Texas. Numerous trees and powerlines were downed and a building was damaged near the intersection of county road 108 and farm to market road 850. Damage was also witnessed to a home, a metal building and dozen of trees along Dill Road. Additional damage was noted along U.S. 259, 4 miles south of Kilgore, Texas where the tornado downed several trees and a metal building suffered damage.

This EF0 tornado was approximately 100 yards wide and was a continuation of the tornado in Rusk County, Texas. Many large trees were uprooted or snapped in the city of Longview, Texas. Damage started along the Rusk, Gregg County line near Stone Road were trees were uprooted. Dozens of trees were downed near the intersection of Jean Road and High Street to near Electra Street and Timpson Street to near Alpine Road and Glover Drive. Numerous trees were downed or snapped causing damage to cars, houses and outbuildings throughout the city including Valley View Elementary School where trees fell on the roof puncturing holes in the roof. Trees were reported down east of Fourth Street and south Cotton Street. Trees were also reported downed at Mobberly and Young Streets and east of 4th Street.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:20 UTC and running to 04:21 UTC.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:44 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Longview/Gregg Co. (GGG), 9 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 91 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:36 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2008 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.