EF1 tornado, Elysian Flds to Karnack, Texas, July 8, 2024

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

July 8, 2024

Touchdown

2:46 PM CDT (19:46 UTC)

Lifted

3:04 PM CDT (20:04 UTC)

On the ground

18 minutes

Path length

9.7 miles (15.6 km)

Path width

270 yards (247 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Harrison County

Touchdown point

32.547, -94.140

Lift-off point

32.665, -94.231

Record number

2407081346-01

26 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS SHV, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.

• Several large trees snapped off CR 9.
• Hardwoods snapped on Don Long Rd.
• Several trees snapped. One tree on a house.
• Significant damage on Bethany State Line Road.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

Tropical Storm Beryl briefly strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane with 80 mph winds as it made landfall along the Southeast Texas coast near Matagorda Bay during the early morning hours of July 8th, and tracked north-northeast across East Texas and into Southwest Arkansas during the afternoon and evening hours. While Beryl weakened into a tropical storm over portions of Deep East Texas by mid-afternoon, very strong wind shear and helicity existed near and east of the center, contributing to the largest tornado outbreak in NWS Shreveport history, as well as with any landfalling tropical system. A total of 43 tornadoes were confirmed through NWS surveys across East Texas, North Louisiana, and Southwest Arkansas, before Beryl weakened into a depression by late afternoon over East Texas. As a part of this outbreak, fifteen tornadoes touched down across portions of East Texas.

This is a continuation of the Northeast Panola County tornado. This EF-1 tornado had weakened slightly to estimated maximum winds of 105 mph as it crossed over into Southeast Harrison County, where multiple hardwood trees were snapped on Don Long Road, and a tree fell along the corner of a home, damaging a wall and a portion of the roof. The tornado continued northwest crossing FM 9 about three-quarters of a mile north of FM 451, where additional trees were snapped and uprooted, and a portion of a metal roof was torn off of a home. The tornado finally lifted before reaching Waskom-Elysian Fields Road, with a total track length of nearly 28 miles from West Central DeSoto Parish, Southwest Caddo Parish, Northeast Panola County, and Southeast Harrison County.

An EF-1 tornado, with estimated maximum winds near 107 mph, touched down along FM 134 south of the Leigh community, and tracked northwest just east of Bill Coleman Road, snapping and uprooting multiple hardwood and softwood trees. The tornado then turned north, crossing Marshall Leigh Road. However, damage was inaccessible between Marshall Leigh Road and FM 2682 due to a lack of roadways. A consistent tornadic debris signature (TDS) from the Shreveport Doppler Radar led to high confidence that the tornado remained on the ground during this time. Additional tree damage was observed as the tornado crossed Highway 43 and then moved along Peter Chapel Road, before lifting near the intersection of Baldwin Road and Peter Chapel Road west of Karnack.

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

28 minutes of warning. NWS SHV issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:18 UTC, 28 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 15:02 UTC and running to 02:45 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:30 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.

Marshall (ASL), 15 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 37 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:46 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 2024 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

51 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.