EF1 tornado, Shelbyville to Paxton, 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

3:18 PM CDT (20:18 UTC)

Lifted

3:33 PM CDT (20:33 UTC)

On the ground

15 minutes

Path length

11.3 miles (18.3 km)

Path width

650 yards (594 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$300,000

County

Shelby County

Touchdown point

31.752, -94.051

Lift-off point

31.895, -94.146

Record number

2407081418-01

116 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS SHV, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 115 mph.

• hi-res satellite data suggests tornado ends here. Could not access by road.
• A woman was injured in her home from debri
• High resolution satellite imagery depicts tree and timber damage where the NWS survey team had no ground access.

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.

An EF-1 tornado with estimated maximum winds near 110 mph touched down on County Road 2625 about 1.5 miles southeast of Shelbyville, and tracked northwest across CR 2100 and FM 417 where it snapped and uprooted numerous hardwood and softwood trees. The significant damage to trees continued to the north as the tornado tore through the Sardis community, south of FM 414 on County Roads 3051, 3054, and 3057. A number of homes also sustained damage to their roofs from a combination of the estimated 110 mph winds produced by the tornado and trees falling on homes. The tornado continued to track to the northwest, where it produced significant tree damage along CR 3505 and 3046 north of Sardis. The tornado then entered a heavily wood area inaccessible by vehicle, although additional significant tree damage was found southwest of the James community along Highway 7. In addition to the trees, a home also sustained significant roof damage from the tornado along with downed power lines. The tornado continued northwest along CR 3140 just northwest of James, with additional tree damage found along County Roads 3140, 3148, 3156, and 3129 before lifting near Spinney Creek south of the Paxton community.

An EF-1 tornado with estimated maximum winds near 100 mph touched down along Highway 84 about 1.5 miles east of the Paxton community, and tracked northwest, snapping and uprooting multiple trees before crossing CR 3717 into Southern Panola County.

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

10 minutes of warning. NWS SHV issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:08 UTC, 10 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:00 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 19:58 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.

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 74 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:18 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.