National Weather Service: Straight-line winds caused damage in Tyler’s Azalea District

Published 5:27 pm Thursday, April 14, 2022

Brandon Davis’ home in the Azalea District near Sunnybrook saw some significant damage.

The National Weather Service said straight-line winds reaching 100 mph caused damage Tuesday in Tyler’s Azalea District.

A team from NWS in Shreveport visited the area to assess the damage Thursday and concluded it wasn’t the result of a tornado.



“It was straight-line winds based on the fact that all the trees are pushed down in the northeast direction,” NWS Meteorologist Charlie Woodrum said.

Woodrum said team members looked at details such as the way trees fell and structural damage left in the wake of Tuesday’s storm.

“The structural damage here is all from trees falling onto the homes,” he said. “There isn’t any actual structural damage to homes … that would lead us to think there was a tornado.”

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There was no vertical uplift or debris such as insulation from a roof that would have been a sign of a tornado, Woodrum said.

While there was rotation above Tyler, Woodrum said the funnel cloud itself never touched down. Following behind that circulation were the straight line winds, he said.

A lot of the damage occurred on the southside of downtown Tyler, including the Azalea District, Woodrum said.

Along with identifying straight-line wind damage in Tyler, Woodrum said he and his team also confirmed three tornadoes in Northwest Louisiana and a downburst — a strong ground-level wind system — northeast of Gladewater. After surveying Tyler, team members were continuing to travel across Northeast Texas, he added.

NWS’ complete preliminary report is not yet available online.