F1 tornado, Bogalusa to Crossroads, Louisiana, April 24, 2003

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.

Rating

F1

Date

April 24, 2003

Touchdown

4:00 PM CDT (21:00 UTC)

Path length

22.0 miles (35.4 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$100,000

Counties

Washington and Pearl River parishes

Touchdown point

30.770, -89.980

Lift-off point

30.870, -89.580

Record number

80

A weak tornado moved northeast along an intermittent path across eastern Washington Parish from near Enon to the Louisiana and Mississippi border southeast of Varnado. Most of the damage was to trees. On Dummyline Road, northeast of Enon, several homes sustained roof damage.

A weak tornado knocked down stadium lights at Poplarville High School and downed trees nearby.

A weak tornado crossed into Pearl River County Mississippi from Washington Parish Louisiana about 3 miles north of Crossroads and produced intermittent damage along a path 8 miles long that ended four miles northwest of Poplarville. Most of the damage was to downed trees. Several houses and structures in Ford Creek Rd and Hilt Fornea Rd areas suffered damage.

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

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:09 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.

NWS New Orleans, LA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Apr 24, 4:00 PM CDT, 0 minutes earlier.

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS/BATON ROUGE LA
400 PM CDT THU APR 24 2003

UPDATED TO LOWER POPS FOR TONIGHT AND FRIDAY. SHORT WAVE ENERGY
MOVING FASTER THRU AREA THAN EXPECTED. AVN QPF GRIDS LOOK GOOD WITH
BEST CHANCE OF RAIN NORTH OF THE LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN AND OVER THE
COASTAL WATERS.

.NEW...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY...COASTL ZONES KPQL TO INTRACOASTAL CITY
       OUT 60 NM INCLUDING LAKES PONTCHARTRAIN AND MAUREPAS.
LA...NONE.
MS...NONE.

LAZ034>040-046>050-056>070-MSZ068>071-077-080>082-251100-

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS LA
1000 AM CDT THU APR 24 2003

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR SOUTHEAST LOUISIANA AND
EXTREME SOUTHWEST AND COASTAL MISSISSIPPI.

.DAY ONE...THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT

SCATTERED TO NUMEROUS THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED THIS AFTERNOON AND
TONIGHT AS A STRONG UPPER LEVEL SYSTEM AFFECTS THE AREA. THERE IS A
SLIGHT RISK OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS THIS AFTERNOON AND THIS EVENING.
THE MAIN HAZARD FROM SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE DAMAGING WINDS AND
LARGE HAIL...AN ISOLATED TORNADO IS ALSO POSSIBLE. THE MOST LIKELY
AREAS TO SEE THIS ACTIVITY WILL BE FROM LAKES MAUREPAS TO
PONTCHARTRAIN NORTHWARD OR NORTH OF INTERSTATE 10.

MARINE...
SMALL CRAFT ADVISORIES ARE IN EFFECT FOR ALL COASTAL WATERS
INCLUDING LAKES MAUREPAS AND PONTCHARTRAIN FOR WINDS 20 TO 25 KNOTS.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...FRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY

NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED THROUGH WEDNESDAY.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

ACTIVATION OF STORM SPOTTERS...HAM RADIO OPERATORS AND EMERGENCY
MANAGEMENT PERSONNEL...IN SUPPORT OF SEVERE WEATHER OPERATIONS...MAY
BE REQUIRED THIS 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.

Bogalusa (BXA), 8 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2003 tornado in LouisianaEvery tornado in Louisiana since 1950Warnings in force in Louisiana nowThe forecast where you are

26 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.