Tropical Storm Beryl Produced At Least 10 Tornadoes In East Texas

For more than a week East Texans had their eyes on the Caribbean, then the Gulf of Mexico, then the Texas coast as Hurricane Beryl moved ashore. By the time the Category 1 storm moved over East Texas, it was downgraded to a Tropical Storm.

It's very impressive that a tropical system can hold together as long as it did as it moved inland. When the storm reached East Texas it produced a lot of rain along with a lot of tornadoes, especially from the northeastern side of the storm. Or as meteorologists refer to it the right quadrant or dirty side.

As Tropical Storm Beryl was spinning counter-clockwise over East Texas the National Weather Service's Shreveport office was issuing a record-setting number of tornado warnings while the storm was barrelling through East Texas and Northwestern Louisiana.

The storm system was finally downgraded to a low-pressure system Tuesday morning and moved across Missouri, the upper Ohio Valley, and through New England and finally exited the US Thursday morning, but not before causing more flash flooding and tornadoes in other parts of the country as well.

In the wake of the Tropical Storm, National Weather Service teams have been conducting damage assessment this week across East Texas and so far they have identified storm paths that were caused by sub-tropical tornadoes.

So far 10 tornadoes and their paths have been identified in East Texas.

The National Weather Service classified tornadoes by their wind speeds using the EF Scale. The Enhanced Fujita Scale classifies tornadoes into the following categories:

EF0 - 65 to 85 mph
EF1 - 86 to 110 mph
EF2 - 111 to 135 mph
EF3 - 136 to 165 mph
EF4 - 166 to 200 mph
EF5 - >200 mph

Here's a listing of the tornadoes and paths that have been identified by National Weather Service teams so far along with their tornado rating, peak winds, path length, and width.

Tornado #1: Holly Park Marina/Sabine County TX

Rating: EF1
Estimated Peak Wind: 110 mph
Path Length /statute/: 2.85 miles
Path Width /maximum/: 440 yards

Tornado #2: Near Appleby/Nacogdoches County TX

Rating: EF1
Estimated Peak Wind: 110 mph
Path Length /statute/: 7.09 miles
Path Width /maximum/: 1208 yards

Tornado #3: South of Henderson, Rusk County TX

Rating: EF0
Estimated Peak Wind: 85 mph
Path Length /statute/: 3.73 miles
Path Width /maximum/: 915 yards

Tornado #4: Timpson/Shelby County, TX

Rating: EF1
Estimated Peak Wind: 110 mph
Path Length /statute/: 2.57 miles
Path Width /maximum/: 495 yards

Tornado #5: Longstreet and Four Forks LA, and Bethany TX/Desoto and Caddo Parishes, LA and NE Panola/SE Harrison Counties, TX

Rating: EF1
Estimated Peak Wind: 110 mph
Path Length /statute/: 26.10 miles
Path Width /maximum/: 750 yards

Tornado #6: East Texas Regional Airport/Gregg & Rusk Counties, TX

Rating: EF0
Estimated Peak Wind: 85 mph
Path Length /statute/: 3.1052 miles
Path Width /maximum/: 570.0 yards

Tornado #7: Tatum/Hallsville in Harrison and Panola County, TX

Rating: EF1
Estimated Peak Wind: 110 mph
Path Length /statute/: 9.7927 miles
Path Width /maximum/: 380.0 yards

Tornado #8: East of Center/Shelby County, TX

Rating: EF1
Estimated Peak Wind: 110 mph
Path Length /statute/: 10.39 miles
Path Width /maximum/: 900 yards

Tornado #9: Western Toledo Bend/Southeast Shelby County, TX

Rating: EF1
Estimated Peak Wind: 110 mph
Path Length /statute/: 4.16 miles
Path Width /maximum/: 530 yards

Tornado #10: Near Paxton/E of Woods/Northeast Shelby and Southeast Panola Counties, TX

Rating: EF1
Estimated Peak Wind: 100 mph
Path Length /statute/: 5.13 miles
Path Width /maximum/: 800 yards

National Weather Service teams are still in East Texas investigating other possible storm paths and the total number of tornadoes that were produced by Tropical Storm Beryl and touched down could go up.