Louisiana, 2001

Tornado in Louisiana, December 12, 2001

December 12, 2001 · NWS LCH · 1 event in 1 county or zone

The tornado that originated in Beauregard Parish continued into rural Vernon Parish, blowing trees and power lines down on Planer Mill Road. A couple of homes in Rosepine lost shingles during the storm.

Where it happened

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  • 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
$50,000
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.

What happened

The episode as NWS LCH wrote it up.

The tornado that originated in Beauregard Parish continued into rural Vernon Parish, blowing trees and power lines down on Planer Mill Road. A couple of homes in Rosepine lost shingles during the storm.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Lake Charles, LA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Dec 12, 3:00 AM CST, 8 hours 18 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Dec 12, 3:00 AM CST, 8 hours 18 minutes before
SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA AND SOUTHEAST TEXAS FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LAKE CHARLES LA
300 AM CST WED DEC 12 2001

...POTENTIAL FOR HEAVY RAINFALL...

LARGE BAND OF SHWRS/RAIN ABT 100 MILES WIDE EXTENDS FROM THE CNTRL
TX COAST NORTHEAST INTO NW LA SPILLING OVER INTO NE LA. RPT FM THE
HOU OFFICE INDCG RAINFALL TOTALS OF TWO TO FOUR INCHES OVER THE
HOUSTON AREA. THIS BAND HAS CONTINUED TO PUSH SLOWLY TO THE EAST
THIS AM.

LATEST 88-D IMAGES FM LCH... INDCG ISOLATED SHWRS IN ADVANCE OF
BAND MOVG NNW MERGING W/ STORM COMPLEX...VAD WIND PROFILE INDCG 2000
FT WINDS SOUTH AT 40 KTS. FURTHER...WARM WEDGE (WARM FRONT)
EXTENDING FM CNTRL TX CST UP TO CONROE AND BACK TO EXTREME SE TX
EAST OF BPT.

WARM FRONT IS EXPECTED TO PUSH INTO LA TDY. THEREFORE THEIR IS A
POSSIBILITY OF SEVERE WEATHER DRG THE AFTN HRS. STORMS TDY ARE
GETTING SUPPORT FM LOW LEVEL CONVERGENCE (RICH GULF MOISTURE) AND
MID LVL SUPPORT FM AN UPR LVL LOW SPINNING ACROSS THE ARIZONA/NEW
MEXICO BORDER. UPR LVL LOW/TROF TO MOVE EAST.

TDY...WINDS AROUND 15 TO 20 MPH ALG THE CST. LOOKING OVR THE SPD OF
THE RAINBAND THIS LOOKS TO GIVE SE TX AND LA ANOTHER GOOD DOSE OF
RAINFALL TDY...THEN AGAIN ON THURSDAY...AS ANOTHER BAND OF
RAINSHOWERS PUSHES THRU.

THINGS BEGIN TO CLEAR OUT ON THURSDAY EVENING AS THE NEXT IN THE
LATEST FRONTS PUSHES THROUGH THE AREA. WITH A VERY PROGRESSIVE
PATTERN AT THIS TIME...GET ONLY A SLIGHT BREAK BEFORE SHWRS/RAIN
MOVE BACK INTO THE FORECAST ON SUNDAY. SHWRS BREAK JUST IN TIME
FOR THE NEW WORK WEEK WITH ANOTHER COLD FRONT DIVING DOWN INTO THE
AREA.

TKS FOR COORD...HOU...SHV...NEW

LCH...SMALL CRAFT SHOULD EXERCISE CAUTION...

.PRELIM NUMBERS...
BPT 73/65/70/45/58/44  +76000
LCH 73/65/70/45/60/52  +76000
LFT 73/64/69/47/60/50  787300
AEX 68/65/71/42/60/51  888000

K. KUYPER

The radar

The Ft Polk radar (KPOE), 42 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 17:18 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.

Tornado, Vernon

When
December 12, 11:18 AM CST to 11:20 AM CST
Where
Vernon County, 2 mi SW of Rosepine
Rating
F1
Path length
2 mi
Path width
20 yd
Property damage
$50,000
Reported by
NWS STORM SURVEY
Coordinates
30.900, -93.300

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

More

Every storm in Louisiana in 2001Every state in 2001This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Louisiana, 2001Warnings in Louisiana, December 2001

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: 5276179.