National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office

NEXRAD Doppler reflectivity display of five of the supercell thunderstorms that produced the tornado outbreak.

STORM 1 - This is the remains of the thunderstorm which produced tornadoes in southeast Oklahoma and southwest Arkansas. At the time of this display it is about to produce the F0 tornado that touched down near DeAnn, Arkansas.

STORM 2 - This is the thunderstorm which produced the tornadoes in northeast Texas in Red River County and is about to produce the tornado which touched down west of Bradley, Arkansas.

STORM 3 - The thunderstorm which started in Titus County, Texas, moved across Cass County, Texas and produced the tornado that touched down in Vivian, Louisiana and moved across Caddo, Bossier and Webster Parishes before ending just east of Minden, Louisiana.

STORM 4 - This is the thunderstorm which moved over Marshall, Texas and Shreveport, Louisiana, before hitting Castor, Louisiana.

STORM 5 - This thunderstorm is just in the development stage and will produce tornadoes from DeSoto Parish to LaSalle Parish.

  The following is a close-in view of the reflectivity "hooks" associated with supercell storms 3 and 4. "Hook echoes" of this magnitude typically indicate strong rotation and tornadoes.  

  Velocity display of Storm 4 and the tornado it produced which moved across the south side of Shreveport. The light green blocks are pixels of in-bound velocities (i.e. air moving towards the radar site.) The lighter red pixels are out-bound velocities. The close proximity of the two opposite direction velocities is indicative of near "gate-to-gate" shear associated with a strong tornado.  

  This reflectivity image shows the "hook" shaped echo of the tornado moving over Castor, Louisiana (Storm 4), while back over Shreveport, the "hook" echo of the tornado which moved over downtown Shreveport (Storm 6) can be seen in the second line of thunderstorms which moved through the area.