Tornadoes · United States · Louisiana · 2009
EF0 tornado, Ogden to Heflin, Louisiana, April 9, 2009
From Ogden to Heflin, this EF0 tornado ran 2.3 miles across Webster Parish on April 9, 2009, touching down at 11:04 PM CDT and reaching 100 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 Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- EF0
- Date
- April 9, 2009
- Touchdown
- 11:04 PM CDT (04:04 UTC)
- Lifted
- 11:06 PM CDT (04:06 UTC)
- On the ground
- 2 minutes
- Path length
- 2.3 miles (3.7 km)
- Path width
- 100 yards (91 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $100,000
- County
- Webster Parish
- Touchdown point
- 32.462, -93.260
- Lift-off point
- 32.459, -93.221
- Record number
- 0904092204-01
What the Weather Service recorded
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 southern Webster Parish near Hwy 531, to the northeast of Heflin. Several trees were snapped off at the top while others were uprooted. The 2.25 mile-long track ended along Moores Cemetery Road, where other trees were snapped at the top. The path width was approximately 100 yards wide and this EF0 tornado was on the ground for about 3 minutes.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
12 minutes of warning. NWS SHV issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:52 UTC, 12 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:15 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 02:10 UTC and running to 06:03 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14:00 UTC | 01:00 UTC | Lake Wind Advisory | SHV |
| 02:10 UTC | 06:03 UTC | Tornado Watch | SHV |
| 02:54 UTC | 03:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | SHV |
| 03:13 UTC | 04:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | SHV |
| 03:33 UTC | 04:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | SHV |
| 03:52 UTC | 04:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | SHV |
| 04:12 UTC | 04:28 UTC | Tornado Warning | SHV |
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 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 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.
Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 00:00Z
4.1 hours before the tornado, 48 km from the path. April 10, 2009.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 938 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -186 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1584 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 814 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 52 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 28 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 370 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 290 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.2
- Supercell composite
- 4.5
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.8 K/km
Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 12:00Z
7.9 hours after it, 48 km from the path. April 10, 2009.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 698 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -122 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1327 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 737 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 73 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 26 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 128 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 213 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.4
- Supercell composite
- 4.2
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.9 K/km
The surface observations
Barksdale Afb (BAD), 40 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 02:55 UTC | 69.8 | 62.6 | 180° 19 kt | 26 | 1003.4 | |
| 03:13 UTC | 69.8 | 62.6 | 180° 16 kt | 25 | 1004.4 | VCTS |
| 03:14 UTC | 69.8 | 62.6 | 180° 16 kt | 22 | 1004.1 | TS |
| 03:30 UTC | 69.8 | 62.6 | 360° 28 kt | 47 | 1002.4 | FC |
| 03:55 UTC | 68 | 60.8 | 240° 7 kt | 17 | 1006.1 | -TSRA |
| 04:55 UTC | 68 | 62.6 | 200° 13 kt | 1005.8 | ||
| 05:55 UTC | 68 | 62.6 | 190° 13 kt | 1005.8 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 56 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:03 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.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 02:54 UTC | HAIL 0.75 | 2 E Blanchard | Caddo, LA | |
| 03:09 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | 2 E Blanchard | Caddo, LA | |
| 03:14 UTC | TORNADO | 5 Nnw Shreveport | Caddo, LA | SPOTTER IN THE FIELD REPORTS TREES ON HOUSES IN LAKEVIEW SUBDIVISION AND HWY 169 CLOSED DUE TO TREES ON ROAD |
| 03:16 UTC | HAIL 1 | Bossier City | Bossier, LA | TILLMAN STREET |
| 03:25 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Wsw Bossier City | Bossier, LA | SEVERAL TREES AND POWERLINES BLOWN DOWN ON BOONE ST., GILBERT ST., AND MARGERET ST. JUST OFF OF BARKSDALE BLVD. |
| 03:30 UTC | HAIL 1 | Haughton | Bossier, LA | IN DOGWOOD ESTATES |
| 03:30 UTC | TORNADO | 5 Nw Shreveport | Caddo, LA | *** 1 INJ *** 1 MALE TRANSPORTED TO LOCAL HOSPITAL FROM LAKEVIEW SUBDIVISION |
| 03:32 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Se Blanchard | Caddo, LA | ESTIMATED 10-15 RAIL CARS BLOWN OFF THE TRACK ALONG I-220 AND CADDO LAKE. |
| 03:33 UTC | TORNADO | Shreveport | Caddo, LA | *** 1 INJ *** TREE FELL ON CAR. 3100 BLOCK OF ASTON. WOMAN TRAPPED IN CAR. |
| 03:47 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Bossier City | Bossier, LA | MARGARET DRIVE AND GILBERT DRIVE. NUMEROUS TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN. |
| 03:50 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Se Blanchard | Caddo, LA | ESTIMATED 10-15 RAIL CARS BLOWN OFF THE TRACK ALONG I-220 AND CADDO LAKE. |
| 03:50 UTC | TORNADO | 5 Nw Shreveport | Caddo, LA | *** 1 INJ *** 1 MALE TRANSPORTED TO LOCAL HOSPITAL FROM LAKEVIEW SUBDIVISION |
| 03:53 UTC | TORNADO | Shreveport | Caddo, LA | *** 1 INJ *** TREE FELL ON CAR. 3100 BLOCK OF ASTON. WOMAN TRAPPED IN CAR. |
| 03:58 UTC | TORNADO | 1 N Heflin | Webster, LA | SEVERAL TREES REPORTED DOWN NEAR HIGWAY 531 AND ON HWY 371 |
| 04:04 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Ene Heflin | Webster, LA | AN EF0 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN ALONG HWY 531 NORTHEAST OF HEFLIN. SEVERAL TREES WERE SNAPPED AND UPROOTED ALONG THE 2.25 MILE LONG AND 100 YARD WIDE PATH. THE TORNADO LIFTED ALONG MOORES CEMETARY ROAD. THE TORNADO WAS ON TH |
| 04:10 UTC | HAIL 1 | Gibsland | Bienville, LA | GIBSON EXIT ON I-20 |
| 04:23 UTC | HAIL 1 | Gibsland | Bienville, LA | |
| 04:33 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Ssw Simsboro | Lincoln, LA | AN EF1 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN ALONG STATE HWY 508 AND MONDY ROAD. SEVERAL TREES AND POWERLINES WERE DOWNED AND A HOME SUSTAINED SOME ROOF DAMAGE. THE TORNADO WAS ON THE GROUND FOR 6 MINUTES WITH A PATH 4.4 MILES LONG AND 1 |
| 04:38 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Ssw Simsboro | Lincoln, LA | TREES DOWN IN THE MONDY ROAD AREA |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2009 tornado in LouisianaEvery tornado in Louisiana since 1950Warnings in force in Louisiana nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of April 9, 2009
21 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 9 | 6:03 PM CDT | EF0 | Craig, OK | 2.4 | 100 | $25,000 | ||
| April 9 | 6:18 PM CDT | EF0 | Latimer, OK | 4.3 | 150 | $100,000 | ||
| April 9 | 6:42 PM CDT | EF1 | Pushmataha, OK | 7.7 | 200 | |||
| April 9 | 6:55 PM CDT | EF1 | LeFlore, OK | 7.5 | 400 | $20,000 | ||
| April 9 | 7:26 PM CDT | EF2 | Polk, OK to AR | 10.7 | 800 | 4 | $350,000 | |
| April 9 | 7:52 PM CDT | EF1 | Morris, TX | 5.8 | 150 | $20,000 | ||
| April 9 | 8:01 PM CDT | EF3 | Sevier, OK to AR | 37.2 | 850 | 7 | $5.1 million | |
| April 9 | 8:02 PM CDT | EF3 | Polk, AR | 14.8 | 1,075 | 3 | 30 | $130 million |
| April 9 | 8:05 PM CDT | EF2 | Cass, TX | 16.8 | 190 | $750,000 | ||
| April 9 | 8:20 PM CDT | EF0 | Christian, MO | 1.6 | 150 | $100,000 | ||
| April 9 | 8:34 PM CDT | EF2 | Howard, AR | 2.7 | 250 | 1 | $500,000 | |
| April 9 | 8:41 PM CDT | EF0 | Cass, TX | 3.8 | 75 | $50,000 | ||
| April 9 | 8:51 PM CDT | EF3 | Miller, AR | 9.9 | 850 | $1.0 million | ||
| April 9 | 8:53 PM CDT | EF1 | Pike, AR | 3.0 | 350 | $25,000 | ||
| April 9 | 9:13 PM CDT | EF1 | Harrison, TX | 2.6 | 200 | $1.0 million | ||
| April 9 | 9:48 PM CDT | EF2 | Harrison, TX to LA | 37.2 | 500 | 2 | $13 million | |
| April 9 | 10:02 PM CDT | EF0 | Bossier Parish, LA | 0.8 | 75 | $5,000 | ||
| April 9 | 11:21 PM CDT | EF1 | Union Parish, LA | 5.5 | 150 | |||
| April 9 | 11:27 PM CDT | EF2 | Ashley, AR | 13.6 | 600 | $600,000 | ||
| April 9 | 11:33 PM CDT | EF1 | Lincoln Parish, LA | 4.4 | 150 | $300,000 | ||
| April 9 | 12:05 AM CDT | EF2 | Jackson Parish, LA | 12.6 | 300 | $1.0 million |
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.