EF0 tornado, Gilark to Minden Webster Fld, Louisiana, September 13, 2008

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 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. EF3136 to 165 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. EF5over 200 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

EF0

Date

September 13, 2008

Touchdown

4:09 PM CDT (21:09 UTC)

Lifted

4:10 PM CDT (21:10 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

1.9 miles (3.1 km)

Path width

40 yards (37 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Webster Parish

Touchdown point

32.635, -93.303

Lift-off point

32.663, -93.303

Record number

0809131509-01

Hurricane Ike came onshore across extreme southeast Texas during the late night hours of September 12th and the pre-dawn hours of September 13th. The storm made good progress northward during the day of September 13th and brought Tropical Storm force winds to much of northeast Texas and northwest Louisiana and extreme southwest Arkansas. The storm produced widespread downed trees and power lines along with structural damage either from the winds or from downed trees which fell on top of structures. Power outages were widespread across a three state area of northeast Texas, northwest Louisiana and southwest Arkansas. Southwest Electric Power Company (SWEPCO) which provides electricity to a good portion of northeast Texas, northwest Louisiana and southwest Arkansas said that the number of outages peaked at 187,000 customers. Additional power companies were called in from far away as Indiana and Michigan to deal with the numerous power outages. This was the second most number of outages at one time reported in SWEPCO's 96 year history. The most number of outages was 234,000 during the ice storm of December 13th, 2000. The number of power outages in association with Hurricane Ike topped the September 2005 recovery from Hurricane Rita by nearly 1000 customers. The storm also produced tornadoes across portions of north central Louisiana as well as south central Arkansas and east central Texas.

An EF0 tornado touched down northwest of Minden, Louisiana just west of the Minden airport along Methodist Camp Road. The tornado tracked for approximately 2 miles before dissipating near the Kisatchie National Forecast. A few trees and large branches were snapped and damage occurred to some power lines along the 40 mile wide path.

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

18 minutes of warning. NWS SHV issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:51 UTC, 18 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 14:40 UTC and running to 00:00 UTC.

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 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 20:00 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 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.

Barksdale Afb (BAD), 37 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 55 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:09 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.

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

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2008 tornado in LouisianaEvery tornado in Louisiana since 1950Warnings in force in Louisiana nowThe forecast where you are

30 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.