Tornado in Louisiana, April 4, 1997

Name: Tornado in Louisiana, April 4, 1997
Start: 1997-04-04T16:45
End: 1997-04-04T17:20
Location: Louisiana

April 4, 1997 · NWS SHV · 1 event in 1 county or zone

1 tornado, as filed by the National Weather Service.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

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The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $200,000
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

The radar

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 55 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 22:45 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.

Tornado, Webster

When: April 4, 4:45 PM CST to 5:20 PM CST
Where: Webster County, Cotton Vly to 1 mi NE of Shongaloo
Rating: F1
Path length: 20 mi
Path width: 100 yd
Property damage: $200,000
Coordinates: 32.800, -93.430

A tornado touched down 1 mile southwest of Cotton Valley in Webster Parish, LA., and moved northeast past Shangaloo. Trees were uprooted while several homes were lifted off their foundations. A travel trailer was blown into a neighbouring field about one hundred yards distance. The Shangaloo high school suffered moderate damage as part of its roof and frame was torn apart. The principal was in the school and said the tornado sounded like a jet airplane before takeoff. The tornado exited the county and the state of Louisiana 7 miles northeast of Shangaloo moving into Columbia County, Arkansas where it continued to 1 mile east of Emerson before dissipating.

What these are

Tornado: A violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and extending from a thunderstorm, filed with its path, width and Fujita or Enhanced Fujita rating from the damage survey.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Louisiana in 1997 Every state in 1997 This day in weather history The tornado archive for Louisiana, 1997 Warnings in Louisiana, April 1997

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5591772.