EF1 tornado, Cheneyville, Louisiana, September 3, 2008

1. EF065 to 85 mph

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

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

   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

EF1

Date

September 3, 2008

Touchdown

3:15 PM CDT (20:15 UTC)

Lifted

3:16 PM CDT (20:16 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.3 miles (0.5 km)

Path width

25 yards (23 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$40,000

County

Rapides Parish

Touchdown point

31.014, -92.289

Lift-off point

31.018, -92.287

Record number

0809031415-01

Hurricane Gustav caused wind damage, flash flooding, and several tornadoes across southwest Louisiana.||Hustav made landfall in Terrebonne Parish in the morning of September 2nd as a category 2 hurricane with sustained winds of 110 mph.||Gustav moved northwest, almost up along Highway 90 across St. Mary, Iberia, St. Martin, and Lafayette Parishes. The highest measured wind gusts were 85 mph at a research site near Abbeville, LA in Vermilion Parish. However, wind speeds were estimated between 75 and 85 mph from St. Mary Parish to Evangeline Parish.||Storm surge was a minimal impact because southwest Louisiana was on the west side of the onshore winds for most of the event. The highest recorded storm tide was 4.77 at Amerada Pass in St. Mary Parish.||However, rainfall was a large impact. In central Louisiana, over 20 inches of rain fell in Rapides Parish, with a CO-OP observer recording 20.43 inches 7 miles east of Alexandria. This resulted in widespread flooding of the Alexandria-Pineville region, where over 200 water rescues were performed. Significant flooding also occurred in New Iberia, where over ten inches of rain fell, resulting in widespread flooding in and around New Iberia.||Several tornadoes were seen across southwest Louisiana, with the worst one occurring in Evangeline Parish near Mamou, where two people were killed when their tied-down mobile home was thrown for over 200 yards.||Other fatalities in the region were considered indirect. Two men died in Calcasieu Parish from carbon monoxide poisoning from a generator running in their home. A woman died in St. Martin Parish when her home caught fire from burning candles after she lost power.||Total property damages were estimated near 750 million dollars in southwest Louisiana. Agricultural loses were estimated to be over 225 million dollars.

A tornado briefly touched down in Cheneyville, resulting in minor damage to roofs of several homes and businesses.

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

13 minutes of warning. NWS LCH issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:02 UTC, 13 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:46 UTC and running to 23:28 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 19:58 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.

Alexandria - Esler (ESF), 42 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 2008 tornado in LouisianaEvery tornado in Louisiana since 1950Warnings in force in Louisiana nowThe forecast where you are

10 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.