Tornadoes · United States · Louisiana · 2004

F1 tornado, Ridge, Louisiana, December 9, 2004

This F1 tornado ran 7.0 miles across Lafayette Parish on December 9, 2004, touching down at 1:25 AM CST and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 1, and did $250,000 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
December 9, 2004
Touchdown
1:25 AM CST (07:25 UTC)
Path length
7.0 miles (11.3 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
1
Property damage
$250,000
County
Lafayette Parish
Touchdown point
30.170, -92.180
Lift-off point
30.230, -92.100
Record number
722

What the Weather Service recorded

At least half a dozen homes were damaged from Ridge to Scott from a fast moving tornado. One man was injured when his mobile home flipped over.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
07:13 UTC07:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLCH
07:40 UTC08:00 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 06:00 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), 00:00Z

7.4 hours before the tornado, 102 km from the path. December 9, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 2004-12-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 452 joules per kilogram, CIN -41, lifted condensation level 538 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 2004-12-09The 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 138 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 59 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
452 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-41 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
538 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
59 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
138 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
179 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
3.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

4.6 hours after it, 102 km from the path. December 9, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 2004-12-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -76604, lifted condensation level 1221 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 2004-12-09The 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 -24 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 58 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-76604 J/kg
Surface CAPE
13 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1221 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
58 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-24 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
111 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Lafayette (LFT), 14 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
05:53 UTC7370160° 16 kt231010.8
06:53 UTC7371190° 12 kt241010.5+TSRA BR
07:08 UTC73.471.6180° 25 kt301011.2+TSRA BR
07:15 UTC71.671.6170° 15 kt301010.5+TSRA FG
07:27 UTC71.671.6170° 18 kt231010.2+TSRA BR
07:30 UTC73.471.6180° 18 kt241010.2+RA BR
07:46 UTC71.669.8200° 17 kt311011.2+TSRA FG
07:53 UTC7170200° 15 kt231011.2+TSRA FG
08:02 UTC71.669.8220° 12 kt211010.8-TSRA BR
08:04 UTC71.669.8220° 11 kt181010.8-TSRA BR
08:22 UTC73.471.6220° 12 kt171011.2-RA
08:31 UTC73.471.6210° 12 kt201010.8-RA
08:46 UTC71.666.2190° 17 kt221011.2
08:53 UTC7166190° 13 kt211011.2

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

The radar

The Lake Charles radar (KLCH), 104 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:23 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
07:25 UTCTORNADO4 Sw LafayetteLafayette, LA*** 1 INJ *** NUMEROUS REPORTS FROM LAW ENFORCEMENT AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC OF A POSSIBLE TORNADO IN THE RIDGE AND JUDICE AREAS SOUTH OF SCOTT NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF LOUISIANA HIGHWAYS 342 AND 724. REPORTS OF 2 MOBILE H
07:40 UTCTORNADO2 Wsw LafayetteLafayette, LALAFAYETTE 911 RELAYED PUBLIC REPORT OF A POSSIBLE TORNADO NEAR INTERSECTION OF WEST CONGRESS STREET AND LE VIOLON ROAD JUST WEST OF LAFAYETTE.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2004 tornado in LouisianaEvery tornado in Louisiana since 1950Warnings in force in Louisiana nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of December 9, 2004

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
December 94:06 AM CSTF1Smith, MS19.0300$1.0 million
December 95:27 AM CSTF0Kemper, MS0.250$10,000
December 95:38 AM CSTF0Kemper, MS0.250$10,000

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.