F3 tornado, Greenwood to Elm Grove, Louisiana, April 23, 2000

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 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 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

F3

Date

April 23, 2000

Touchdown

5:40 PM CDT (22:40 UTC)

Path length

32.5 miles (52.3 km)

Path width

500 yards (457 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

3

Property damage

$7.3 million

Counties

Caddo and Bossier parishes

Touchdown point

32.430, -94.050

Lift-off point

32.280, -93.420

Record number

134

Numerous trees and power lines toppled. Several homes suffered minor to moderate structural damage in the Breckenridge subdivision just souwest of Shreveport. Portable storage building businesses were destroyed and two mobile homes were demolished. This tornado moved from Caddo Parish into southern Bossier Parish.

High precipitation supercells developed along the leading edge of a dry line across eastern Texas which moved into northwest Louisiana. Numerous trees and power lines were downed as the tornado moved across the area. The most extensive damage was noted near Atkins, LA (2.5 miles south of Elm Grove on US 71), where one brick structure was almost totally demolished. Only pieces of two walls remained. The brick structure had 6 inch iron poles supporting the corners and these were bent and twisted. Near the brick building was a two story house which had its roof completely removed and most of its siding stripped off. A mobile home also on this property was completely destroyed and strewn across a field. Some trees that were left standing had their bark and leaves stripped off. Immediately adjacent to this damage, on the other side of US 71, another farm building was completely destroyed along with numerous trees leveled. Eyewitness accounts indicated that two tornadoes occurred with this supercell. The descriptions were consistent with those of cyclic, tornadic supercells. Only one injury was reported at this location. A mans' arm was lacerated to the bone by flying debris.

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

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.

Shreveport Regional (SHV), 13 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 15 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:42 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.

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

32 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.