Tornadoes · United States · Louisiana · 1992

F0 tornado, Madison Parish, Louisiana, August 26, 1992

This F0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Madison Parish on August 26, 1992, touching down at 8:00 PM CDT and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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 mphthis tornado

    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 mph

    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
F0
Date
August 26, 1992
Touchdown
8:00 PM CDT (01:00 UTC)
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Madison Parish
Touchdown point
32.370, -91.150
Record number
973

The warnings

11 minutes of warning. NWS SHV issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:49 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
00:49 UTC01:45 UTCTornado WarningSHV

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:12 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

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.

Jackson, MS (KJAN), 00:00Z

1.0 hours before the tornado, 101 km from the path. August 27, 1992.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jackson, MS at 00:00Z on 1992-08-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 697 joules per kilogram, CIN -1, lifted condensation level 560 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Jackson, MS at 00:00Z on 1992-08-27The 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 176 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 42 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
697 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-1 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1158 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
560 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
176 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
215 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Jackson, MS (KJAN), 12:00Z

11.0 hours after it, 101 km from the path. August 27, 1992.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Jackson, MS at 12:00Z on 1992-08-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 6 joules per kilogram, CIN -21, lifted condensation level 539 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Jackson, MS at 12:00Z on 1992-08-27The 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 63 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 28 knots.1939Sfc1 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
6 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-21 J/kg
Surface CAPE
239 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
539 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
63 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
97 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1992 tornado in LouisianaEvery tornado in Louisiana since 1950Warnings in force in Louisiana nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of August 26, 1992

34 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 262:42 AM CDTF1Iberville Parish, LA1.020$5,000 to $50,000
August 268:00 AM CDTF1Lawrence, MS2.01001$5,000 to $50,000
August 268:05 AM CDTF0Lawrence, MS1.580$50 to $500
August 268:20 AM CDTF1Lincoln, MS2.0100$5,000 to $50,000
August 269:25 AM CDTF0Lawrence, MS1.5100$500 to $5,000
August 269:25 AM CDTF1Saint Tammany Parish, LA14.020$5,000 to $50,000
August 269:26 AM CDTF0Copiah, MS2.0150$500 to $5,000
August 2610:27 AM CDTF1Pointe Coupee Parish, LA1.020$500 to $5,000
August 2611:25 AM CDTF0Claiborne, MS2.0100$50 to $500
August 2611:40 AM CDTF0Warren, MS1.580$50 to $500
August 263:30 PM CDTF1Saint Tammany Parish, LA1.020$500 to $5,000
August 263:30 PM CDTF1Morehouse Parish, LA2.0503$50,000 to $500,000
August 263:33 PM CDTF0McLean, IL0.110
August 264:00 PM CDTF0Union Parish, LA0.520
August 264:17 PM CDTF1Union Parish, LA2.0204$5,000 to $50,000
August 265:00 PM CDTF1Leake, MS1.5150$5,000 to $50,000
August 265:20 PM CDTF0Copiah, MS1.0100$50 to $500
August 265:25 PM CDTF1Kemper, MS1.0100$5,000 to $50,000
August 265:27 PM CDTF0Yazoo, MS1.0100$50 to $500
August 265:40 PM CDTF0Humphreys, MS1.0100$500 to $5,000
August 266:00 PM CDTF0Attala, MS2.0150$500 to $5,000
August 266:00 PM CDTF0Holmes, MS1.5100$5,000 to $50,000
August 266:00 PM CDTF0Clarke, MS1.050$50 to $500
August 266:35 PM CDTF0Lauderdale, MS2.01502$50,000 to $500,000
August 267:10 PM CDTF0Madison Parish, LA0.520
August 267:15 PM CDTF1Tangipahoa Parish, LA7.020$50,000 to $500,000
August 267:40 PM CDTF0Smith, MS2.0150$500 to $5,000
August 268:00 PM CDTF1Madison Parish, LA1.540$5,000 to $50,000
August 268:04 PM CDTF1Madison Parish, LA1.540$5,000 to $50,000
August 268:20 PM CDTF1Franklin Parish, LA1.540
August 269:00 PM CDTF0Yazoo, MS1.5100$500 to $5,000
August 269:20 PM CDTF0Sharkey, MS2.0100$500 to $5,000
August 269:30 PM CDTF0Simpson, MS2.0150$50 to $500
August 2610:25 PM CDTF0Yazoo, MS1.5100$500 to $5,000

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.