Tornadoes · United States · Louisiana · 1974

F2 tornado, Webster Parish, Louisiana, June 9, 1974

This F2 tornado ran 4.5 miles across Webster Parish on June 9, 1974, touching down at 11:05 AM CDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 to $500,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. F3158 to 206 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5261 to 318 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
F2
Date
June 9, 1974
Touchdown
11:05 AM CDT (16:05 UTC)
Path length
4.5 miles (7.2 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
County
Webster Parish
Touchdown point
32.900, -93.450
Lift-off point
32.950, -93.400
Record number
581

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 12:00Z

4.1 hours before the tornado, 58 km from the path. June 9, 1974.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA at 12:00Z on 1974-06-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1028 joules per kilogram, CIN -14, lifted condensation level 842 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Shreveport, LA at 12:00Z on 1974-06-09The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 184 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 36 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
1028 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-14 J/kg
Surface CAPE
976 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
842 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
36 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
184 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
198 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.8
Supercell composite
4.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 00:00Z

7.9 hours after it, 58 km from the path. June 10, 1974.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Shreveport, LA at 00:00Z on 1974-06-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1886 joules per kilogram, CIN -54, lifted condensation level 978 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Shreveport, LA at 00:00Z on 1974-06-10The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 94 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 15 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
1886 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-54 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1162 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
978 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
94 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
282 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
9.5
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1974 tornado in LouisianaEvery tornado in Louisiana since 1950Warnings in force in Louisiana nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 9, 1974

10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 912:30 PM CDTF1Humboldt, IA2.0100$5,000 to $50,000
June 91:30 PM CDTF2Kossuth, IA0.110$50,000 to $500,000
June 93:30 PM CDTF1Adams, WI1.050$5,000 to $50,000
June 93:45 PM CDTF1Portage, WI2.530$500 to $5,000
June 93:57 PM CDTF1Olmsted, MN0.110$500 to $5,000
June 95:45 PM CDTF1Eau Claire, WI3.350$500 to $5,000
June 97:40 PM CDTF0Kane, IL0.110
June 97:55 PM CDTF1Kenosha, WI2.050$50,000 to $500,000
June 99:10 PM EDTF2Mecosta, MI1.51002$50,000 to $500,000
June 98:44 PM CDTF1Kankakee, IL0.110

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.