EF2 tornado, Vernon to Okaloosa, Louisiana, April 9, 2009

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 mph

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

3. EF2111 to 135 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.

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

EF2

Date

April 9, 2009

Touchdown

12:05 AM CDT (05:05 UTC)

Lifted

12:19 AM CDT (05:19 UTC)

On the ground

14 minutes

Path length

12.6 miles (20.3 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$1.0 million

Counties

Jackson and Ouachita parishes

Touchdown point

32.418, -92.530

Lift-off point

32.403, -92.316

Record number

0904092305-01

A strong upper level storm system along with a surface dry line/front |over northeast Texas moved east during the evening hours of April 9th into the early morning hours of April 10th causing long lived supercell thunderstorms. These thunderstorms caused long track tornadoes to occur across southeast Oklahoma, southwest Arkansas, northeast Texas, and north Louisiana.

This storm developed in a wooded area along and east of Olive Grove Road in Jackson Parish where several small pine trees were snapped. Further east along Hwy 144 north of Eros, numerous large trees were snapped and a nearby home sustained roof damage. A barn in a field nearby also sustained significant roof damage. The tornado tracked east into Ouachita Parish, snapping and uprooting trees as well as causing minor roof damage to nearby homes along Guyton Loop Road. The tornado crossed Hwy 34, and moved onto Old Jonesboro Road where numerous trees were snapped and uprooted. One tree was physically moved 30 feet with the root ball intact, leaving a large hole in its original location. One mobile home was moved off of its foundation and several sheds and outbuildings were completely destroyed. Roof damage occurred to several homes along the street as well. The worst damage occurred to a home along Antioch Church Road, where the entire roof was peeled off and destroyed, leaving only the walls.

This storm developed in a wooded area along and east of Olive Grove Road in Jackson Parish where several small pine trees were snapped. Further east along Hwy 144 north of Eros, numerous large trees were snapped and a nearby home sustained roof damage. A barn in a field nearby also sustained significant roof damage. The tornado tracked east into Ouachita Parish, snapping and uprooting trees as well as causing minor roof damage to nearby homes along Guyton Loop Road. The tornado crossed Hwy 34, and moved onto Old Jonesboro Road where numerous trees were snapped and uprooted. One tree was physically moved 30 feet with the root ball intact, leaving a large hole in its original location. One mobile home was moved off of its foundation and several sheds and outbuildings were completely destroyed. Roof damage occurred to several homes along the street as well. The worst damage occurred to a home along Antioch Church Road, where the entire roof was peeled off and destroyed, leaving only the walls.

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

17 minutes of warning. NWS SHV issued a tornado warning for this county at 04:48 UTC, 17 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 05:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 02:10 UTC and running to 06:03 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 General Thunderstorms Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:55 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.

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 133 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:02 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 2009 tornado in LouisianaEvery tornado in Louisiana since 1950Warnings in force in Louisiana nowThe forecast where you are

21 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.