Tornadoes · United States · Louisiana · 1992

F2 tornado, Acadia and Saint Landry parishes, Louisiana, March 4, 1992

This F2 tornado ran 18.0 miles across Acadia and Saint Landry parishes on March 4, 1992, touching down at 11:50 PM CST and reaching 173 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 6, and did $500,000 to $5 million 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
March 4, 1992
Touchdown
11:50 PM CST (05:50 UTC)
Path length
18.0 miles (29.0 km)
Path width
173 yards (158 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
6
Property damage
$500,000 to $5 million
Counties
Acadia and Saint Landry parishes
Touchdown point
30.330, -92.480
Lift-off point
30.520, -92.270
Record number
50

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

5.8 hours before the tornado, 86 km from the path. March 5, 1992.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 1992-03-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 30 joules per kilogram, CIN -11, lifted condensation level 726 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 1992-03-05The 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 239 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 44 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
30 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-11 J/kg
Surface CAPE
597 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
726 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
44 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
239 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
270 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.6
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

6.2 hours after it, 86 km from the path. March 5, 1992.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 1992-03-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2252 joules per kilogram, CIN -5, lifted condensation level 549 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 12:00Z on 1992-03-05The 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 82 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 41 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
2252 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-5 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2821 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
549 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
82 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
93 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.0
Supercell composite
4.6
0-3 km lapse rate
6.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Lafayette (LFT), 45 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 March 4, 1992

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 410:20 AM CSTF1Waller, TX0.730$5,000 to $50,000
March 411:55 AM CSTF0Montgomery, TX0.510$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.