Shreveport Weather Service Confirms 2 Tornadoes. Here’s Where
Shreveport's National Weather Service has confirmed Thursday's early morning storms that hit the Ark-La-Tex produced a pair of tornadoes.
According to the NWS, a tornado with winds up to 110 miles per hour touched down in Caddo Parish north of Cross Lake. The Weather Service says that the Pine Island Road area was the hardest hit.
The Weather Service also reports that a smaller funnel, with strongest winds at about 85 miles per hour, hit the ground near Woodardville, a small community in Bienville Parish just south of Ringgold.
The rapidly moving front that also produced gusting winds and heavy rain left more than 5,500 homes without power in Caddo Parish and Harrison County in east Texas. SWEPCO reports that as of Thursday afternoon power had been restored to all but about 500 area residents.
Shreveport's Southwood High School also reported a power outage from the storm. As a result Thursday's classes at the Walker Road school were cancelled. School officials said that classes are expected to resume Friday.
Tornadoes are measured by what is known as the Enhanced Fujita Scale. Thursday morning's Cross Lake area tornado was graded as an EF1, a "weak" tornado (73 to 112 mph winds) in which "roof surfaces peeled off; mobile homes pushed foundations or overturned; moving autos pushed off road."
The Ringgold area funnel was, according to the NWS, an EF0 tornado. This is the weakest tornado on the scale, with winds between 40 and 72 mph. In this storm, also classified as "weak," "some damage to chimneys; branches broken off trees, shallow-rooted trees uprooted, sign boards damaged."
For more National Weather Service information about the Thursday morning storms and tornadoes in general, JUST CLICK HERE!