Tornadoes · United States · Louisiana · 2006
F2 tornado, New Orleans Intl Arp to New Orleans, Louisiana, February 2, 2006
From New Orleans Intl Arp to New Orleans, this F2 tornado ran 5.5 miles across Orleans and Jefferson parishes on February 2, 2006, touching down at 2:39 AM CST and reaching 150 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $100,000 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.
F040 to 72 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- February 2, 2006
- Touchdown
- 2:39 AM CST (08:39 UTC)
- Path length
- 5.5 miles (8.8 km)
- Path width
- 150 yards (137 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $100,000
- Counties
- Orleans and Jefferson parishes
- Touchdown point
- 29.980, -90.150
- Lift-off point
- 29.950, -90.100
- Record number
- 49
What the Weather Service recorded
A tornado touched down just southwest of New Orleans Armstrong International Airport, and continued moving northeast on an intermittent path for about 3.5 miles into the community of Kenner. Several warehouses near the airport suffered substantial damage and several large trucks moved in the parking lot. Several frame homes had roof damage, and plate glass windows were blown out of small retail buildings and one of the airport's concourses. One minor injury was reported due to flying glass.
A tornado touched down along the the Mississippi River just east of Ochsner Hospital in the east portion of Metaire. Several retail buildings and warehouses had significant damage to roofs, and several trailers were overturned. The tornado continued northeast on an intermittent path with several houses and building damaged. The tornado exited Jefferson Parish just northeast of Old Metaire and entered New Orleans, Orleans Parish.
The tornado which moved through the east portions of Metaire continued to move northeast through the Lakeview and Lakefront neighborhoods of New Orleans. The area where the tornado impacted had previously been flooded by Hurricane Katrina, and most homes were unoccupied. Several homes suffered substantial damage to roofs, windows blown out, and power poles blown down. Several two story homes suffered substantial damage to the second floor with roof removed and walls blown out. A large communication tower was toppled at a former state policebuilding. The tornado moved into Lake Pontchartrain as a waterspout.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
0 minutes of warning. NWS LIX issued a tornado warning for this county at 08:39 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 09:15 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 08:10 UTC and running to 10:59 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 08:10 UTC | 10:59 UTC | Tornado Watch | LIX |
| 08:31 UTC | 09:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | LIX |
| 08:39 UTC | 09:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | LIX |
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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 05:40 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.
Slidell Radar S, LA (KSIL), 00:00Z
8.7 hours before the tornado, 52 km from the path. February 2, 2006.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -87445 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 887 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 46 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 14 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 137 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 196 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.6 K/km
Slidell Radar S, LA (KSIL), 12:00Z
3.3 hours after it, 52 km from the path. February 2, 2006.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 351 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -21 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 6 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 514 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 76 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 32 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -29 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 15 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- -1.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.3 K/km
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 08:00 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Raceland | Lafourche, LA | DAMAGE TO SCHOOL BUILDINGS. |
| 08:34 UTC | TORNADO 1 | New Orleans Armstrong A | Jefferson, LA | *** 1 INJ *** NWS GROUND SURVEY INDICATED TORNADO MOVED ALONG A NORTH NORTHEAST PATH BEGINNING AT RIVER ROAD SOUTHWEST OF THE AIRPORT...THEN TRAVELED NORTHEAST ACROSS THE AIRPORT TO 2.5 MILES NORTHEAST OF THE TERMINAL. D |
| 08:34 UTC | TORNADO 1 | New Orleans Armstrong A | Jefferson, LA | *** 1 INJ *** NWS GROUND SURVEY INDICATED TORNADO MOVED ALONG A NORTH NORTHEAST PATH BEGINNING AT RIVER ROAD SOUTHWEST OF THE AIRPORT...THEN TRAVELED NORTHEAST ACROSS THE AIRPORT TO APPROXIMATELY A MILE NORTHEAST OF THE |
| 08:34 UTC | TORNADO | New Orleans Armstrong A | Jefferson, LA | WEATHER OBSERVER OBSERVED FUNNEL CLOUD AT THE SAME TIME THAT SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE OCCURRED TO CONCOURSE C. 20 X 8 FOOT GLASS WINDOW ALONG WITH METAL FRAME WERE SUCKED OUT IN WALKWAY AREA JUST PAST SECURITY CHECKPOINT. FOUR |
| 08:34 UTC | TORNADO | New Orleans Armstrong A | Jefferson, LA | WEATHER OBSERVER OBSERVED FUNNEL CLOUD AT THE SAME TIME THAT SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE OCCURRED TO CONCOURSE C. 20 X 8 FOOT GLASS WINDOW ALONG WITH METAL FRAME WERE SUCKED OUT IN WALKWAY AREA JUST PAST SECURITY CHECKPOINT. FOUR |
| 08:34 UTC | TORNADO | New Orleans Armstrong A | Jefferson, LA | WEATHER OBSERVER OBSERVED FUNNEL CLOUD AT THE SAME TIME THAT SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE OCCURRED TO CONCOURSE C. 20 X 8 FOOT GLASS WINDOW ALONG WITH METAL FRAME WERE SUCKED OUT IN WALKWAY AREA JUST PAST SECURITY CHECKPOINT. FOUR |
| 08:39 UTC | TORNADO 1 | Metairie | Jefferson, LA | GROUND SURVEY INDICATED TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN INITIALLY ALONG RIVER ROAD AT IRIS AVE NEAR OSCHNER HOSPITAL. SEVERAL STRUCTURES HAD ROOFS REMOVED. WAREHOUSES DAMAGED AND POWER LINES/POLES SNAPPED. THE TORNADO TRAVELED NORT |
| 08:39 UTC | TORNADO 2 | New Orleans | Orleans, LA | ADDITIONAL DAMAGE INFORMATION INDICATES THAT THE DAMAGE FROMTHE MISSISSIPPI RIVER EAST OF OCHSNER HOSPITAL TO THE LAKEVIEW SECTION OF NEW ORLEANS CAN ATTRIBUTED TO ONE TORNADO. DAMAGE WAS MOST PRONOUNCED NEAR THE MISSISS |
| 08:43 UTC | TORNADO 2 | New Orleans | Orleans, LA | GROUND SURVEY INDICATED STRONG TORNADO MOVED ON A NORTH NORTHEAST PATH ACROSS THE LAKEVIEW AREA OF NEW ORLEANS. SEVERAL HOUSES HEAVY DAMAGED...OTHER HOUSES WITH LIGHTER DAMAGE AND POWER POLES SNAPPED. FORMER STATE POLICE |
| 08:45 UTC | TORNADO | Metairie | Jefferson, LA | SEVERAL TRAILERS NEAR OSCHNER HOSPITAL SUSTAINED ROOF DAMAGE...ROOFS WERE TORN UPWARDS FROM THEIR BASE. IN ADDITION...SEVERAL POWER LINES WERE REPORTED DOWN. |
| 09:00 UTC | TORNADO | New Orleans | Orleans, LA | HOME SUSTAINED SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE IN THE LAKEVIEW AREA NEAR THE WEST END OF NEW ORLEANS. IN ADDITION...NUMEROUS POWER LINES WERE REPORTED DOWN. |
| 09:00 UTC | TORNADO | New Orleans | Orleans, LA | UPDATED...5 HOUSES COLLAPSED IN THE LAKEVIEW AREA OF NORTHWEST NEW ORLEANS. THE OLD STATE POLICE TROOP B TOWER WAS KNOCKED DOWN FORCING CLOSURE OF SECTIONS OF VETERANS HIGHWAY BETWEEN FLEUR DE LIS AND PONTCHARTRAIN BLVD. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2006 tornado in LouisianaEvery tornado in Louisiana since 1950Warnings in force in Louisiana nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of February 2, 2006
3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 2 | 2:34 AM CST | F1 | Jefferson Parish, LA | 3.5 | 150 | 1 | $750,000 | |
| February 2 | 3:20 PM CST | F0 | Monroe, AL | 0.5 | 30 | $30,000 | ||
| February 2 | 3:25 PM CST | F0 | Conecuh, AL | 0.5 | 30 | $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.