Tornadoes · United States · Louisiana · 1975

F2 tornado, Jefferson Davis Parish, Louisiana, May 8, 1975

This F2 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Jefferson Davis Parish on May 8, 1975, touching down at 1:05 AM CDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 2, and did $50 to $500 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
May 8, 1975
Touchdown
1:05 AM CDT (06:05 UTC)
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
2
Property damage
$50 to $500
County
Jefferson Davis Parish
Touchdown point
30.230, -92.820
Record number
334

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.

Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 00:00Z

6.1 hours before the tornado, 39 km from the path. May 8, 1975.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 1975-05-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 3190 joules per kilogram, CIN -15, lifted condensation level 694 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, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 1975-05-08The 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 -44 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 39 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
3190 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-15 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3779 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
694 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
39 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-44 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
22 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.3
Supercell composite
1.6
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 12:00Z

5.9 hours after it, 39 km from the path. May 8, 1975.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 1975-05-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -6572, lifted condensation level 1545 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 1975-05-08The 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 -51 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 54 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-6572 J/kg
Surface CAPE
61 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1545 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
54 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-51 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
195 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
7.8
0-3 km lapse rate
4.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1975 tornado in LouisianaEvery tornado in Louisiana since 1950Warnings in force in Louisiana nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 8, 1975

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 81:15 AM CDTF1De Soto Parish, LA0.7331under $50
May 82:00 AM CDTF2Acadia Parish, LA0.550
May 82:30 AM CDTF1Lafayette Parish, LA0.5502$50 to $500
May 82:30 AM CDTF2East Baton Rouge Parish, LA6.250
May 83:00 AM CDTF2Saint Helena Parish, LA0.110
May 85:25 PM CDTF0Karnes, TX0.110$500 to $5,000
May 85:45 PM CDTF0Zavala, TX0.110
May 85:05 PM MDTF1Natrona, WY0.110under $50
May 86:20 PM CDTF0Wilson, TX0.110
May 87:30 PM CDTF0Victoria, TX0.110
May 810:48 PM CDTF1Marshall, AL0.110$5,000 to $50,000

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.