Tornadoes · United States · Louisiana · 1992

F1 tornado, Madison Parish, Louisiana, August 26, 1992

This F1 tornado ran 1.5 miles across Madison Parish on August 26, 1992, touching down at 8:00 PM CDT and reaching 40 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5,000 to $50,000 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 mphthis tornado

    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
F1
Date
August 26, 1992
Touchdown
8:00 PM CDT (01:00 UTC)
Path length
1.5 miles (2.4 km)
Path width
40 yards (37 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
County
Madison Parish
Touchdown point
32.350, -91.030
Record number
974

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, 89 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°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, 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, 89 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°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, 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

The surface observations

Jackson/Hawkins Field (HKS), 76 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
00:00 UTC

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

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 CDTF0Madison Parish, LA0.520
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.