Tornadoes · United States · Louisiana · 2000

F1 tornado, Hackberry, Louisiana, April 2, 2000

This F1 tornado ran 15.0 miles across Cameron Parish on April 2, 2000, touching down at 6:40 PM CDT and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 2, and did $300,000 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
April 2, 2000
Touchdown
6:40 PM CDT (23:40 UTC)
Path length
15.0 miles (24.1 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
2
Property damage
$300,000
County
Cameron Parish
Touchdown point
29.930, -93.370
Lift-off point
30.070, -93.120
Record number
167

What the Weather Service recorded

A weak tornado developed in Sabine Wildlife Refuge, and dissipated just before it reached the town of Hackberry. No property damage was reported, since it remained in the marshes. There were numerous public sightings of this tornado.

A second tornado developed in Cameron Parish, doing significant damage around Grand Lake. People at Heberts Marina on Big Lake viewed the tornado as it passed south of them. The tornado severely damaged one home and three mobile homes, destroyed several barns and garages, and blew down many trees and power lines. Two minor injuries were reported. One farmer reported his cattle running around in circles in a field as the tornado passed nearby.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The warnings

33 minutes of warning. NWS LCH issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:07 UTC, 33 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
21:25 UTC22:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLCH
23:07 UTC00:15 UTCTornado WarningLCH

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:45 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.

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

11.7 hours before the tornado, 14 km from the path. April 2, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 2000-04-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 984 joules per kilogram, CIN -66, lifted condensation level 512 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 2000-04-02The 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 122 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 51 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
984 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-66 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2142 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
512 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
51 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
122 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
97 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.6
Supercell composite
4.7
0-3 km lapse rate
4.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

0.3 hours after it, 14 km from the path. April 3, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 2000-04-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 656 joules per kilogram, CIN -45, lifted condensation level 541 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 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 2000-04-03The 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 95 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 51 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
656 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-45 J/kg
Surface CAPE
426 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
541 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
51 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
95 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
251 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.0
Supercell composite
9.2
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Lake Charles (LCH), 14 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:37 UTC75.273.4150° 11 kt1009.5
21:53 UTC75.273.4150° 14 kt1009.1-RA BR
22:01 UTC75.273.4140° 15 kt1007.8-RA
22:06 UTC75.273.4180° 10 kt1009.1+TSRA SHRA
22:14 UTC75.273.4190° 7 kt1008.8+TSRA SHRA
22:53 UTC71.668280° 5 kt1010.8TS
23:00 UTC71.668290° 7 kt1010.8TS
23:18 UTC69.868340° 7 kt1010.5+TSRA SHRA
23:53 UTC6969330° 15 kt1010.5+TSRA BR
23:55 UTC69.869.8310° 19 kt231011.2+TSRA BR
00:00 UTC6868340° 18 kt33+TSGRRA FG
00:10 UTC66.266.210° 11 kt261010.5+TSGRRA FG
00:13 UTC6868360° 12 kt191010.5TSGRRA FG
00:16 UTC6868360° 11 kt1010.8-TSRA BR
00:22 UTC6868360° 7 kt1011.2-TSRA
00:53 UTC686880° 4 kt1011.5TS
01:01 UTC686890° 5 kt1011.2

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

The radar

The Lake Charles radar (KLCH), 14 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:37 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2000 tornado in LouisianaEvery tornado in Louisiana since 1950Warnings in force in Louisiana nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 2, 2000

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 26:25 PM CDTF1Evangeline Parish, LA1.010$50,000
April 26:30 PM CDTF0Neshoba, MS1.050$10,000
April 26:30 PM CDTF0Cameron Parish, LA5.010
April 29:51 PM CDTF1Jefferson, AL4.5400$150,000
April 212:34 AM CDTF2Cleburne, AL1.910016$300,000

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.