National Morning Surface Map on June 1st

Late Tuesday evening, a complex of storms developed across north central Texas and moved east along a weakening cold front stretched along the interstate 20 corridor. Click here for a radar loop of the storms Tuesday night (June 1st/2nd). This line of storms produced a gust of 59 miles per hour at the Shreveport Regional Airport. National Weather Service storm surveys concluded all of the damage was from straight line winds.

National Morning Surface Map on June 2nd

By sunrise Wednesday, June 2nd the complex of storms that affected the area overnight had pushed east and southeast out of the area. The stalled frontal boundary across the area had dissipated, but another cold front approached the area. This cold front was located across northern Oklahoma and northwest Arkansas Wednesday morning (see map above). A line of storms developed along this front around midday and surged southeast into the area by Wednesday evening. This line of severe storms affected all of the area, while the previous couple of complexes of storms had missed southeast Oklahoma, southwest Arkansas and adjacent areas of northeast Texas. Click here for a radar loop of the line moving through the area. The Texarkana Regional Airport recorded a 67 mph wind gust as the line of storms moved through. In the surveys conducted by the National Weather Service officials, no tornadic activity was found. All of the damage appeared to be from straight line winds with wind speeds up to 85 mph or higher in spots.

These rounds of thunderstorms brought widespread wind damage in form of thousands of broken, snapped, or uprooted trees across the area. There were some homes and buildings damaged by the strong winds and some damaged by trees falling on them, but the downed trees accounted for the majority of the damage. There were also reports of large hail...generally up to quarter size...except for the hail storms that occurred just after midnight on the 1st.

There was one fatality in Franklin county Texas where a man was killed when a tree fell on his mobile home. Interstate 30 in Hempstead and Nevada counties was closed for a time due to overturned trucks blocking the interstate. Two people were reported injured with the overturned trucks. Two other people were injured in Hempstead county when a car hit a downed tree. In Shreveport, a young boy was hurt when a tree fell on the bedroom where he was sleeping.

There were thousands of homes and businesses without electrical power, some for several days, due to trees knocking down power lines. This was one of the largest power outages across Northwest Louisiana and adjacent areas of east Texas since the December 2000 ice storm.