Tornadoes · United States · Louisiana · 2006

F1 tornado, Franklinton, Louisiana, May 8, 2006

This F1 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Washington Parish on May 8, 2006, touching down at 10:17 PM CDT and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 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
May 8, 2006
Touchdown
10:17 PM CDT (03:17 UTC)
Path length
0.3 miles (0.5 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
Washington Parish
Touchdown point
30.780, -90.150
Lift-off point
30.780, -90.150
Record number
499

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado crossed Louisiana Highway 25 and blew two cars on Highway 25 off the road and into a ditch.

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

The warnings

34 minutes of warning. NWS LIX issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:43 UTC, 34 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:30 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 01:04 UTC and running to 04:08 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
00:44 UTC01:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLIX
01:04 UTC04:08 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchLIX
02:06 UTC03:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLIX
02:43 UTC03:30 UTCTornado WarningLIX

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:06 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

3.3 hours before the tornado, 73 km from the path. May 9, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Slidell Radar S, LA at 00:00Z on 2006-05-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2016 joules per kilogram, CIN -9, lifted condensation level 751 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 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, Slidell Radar S, LA at 00:00Z on 2006-05-09The 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 71 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 64 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
2016 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-9 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2138 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
751 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
64 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
71 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
99 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.7
Supercell composite
3.5
0-3 km lapse rate
5.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Slidell Radar S, LA (KSIL), 12:00Z

8.7 hours after it, 73 km from the path. May 9, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Slidell Radar S, LA at 12:00Z on 2006-05-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1900 joules per kilogram, CIN -90, lifted condensation level 603 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, Slidell Radar S, LA at 12:00Z on 2006-05-09The 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 200 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 43 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
1900 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-90 J/kg
Surface CAPE
68 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
603 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
43 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
200 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
259 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
10.7
0-3 km lapse rate
4.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

What was reported nearby

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

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
02:20 UTCHAIL 15 E KentwoodTangipahoa, LA
02:40 UTCTSTM WND DMGMount HermanWashington, LAROOFS BLOWN OFF SEVERAL BARNS FROM AREA FARMS.
02:40 UTCHAIL 1Mount HermanWashington, LA
03:00 UTCHAIL 0.75FranklintonWashington, LA
03:17 UTCTORNADO5 S FranklintonWashington, LATORNADO MOVED ACROSS HWY 25 BLEW TWO CARS IN THE DITCH AND DEBRIS ON HWY.

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

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.