EF1 tornado, (01r)Afb Gnry Rng Al to Green Gables, Louisiana, March 8, 2011

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

March 8, 2011

Touchdown

8:57 PM CST (02:57 UTC)

Lifted

9:04 PM CST (03:04 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

3.5 miles (5.6 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Crop damage

$10,000

County

Rapides Parish

Touchdown point

31.165, -92.577

Lift-off point

31.180, -92.521

Record number

1103082057-01

A strong upper level trough moving across the region produced several severe thunderstorms across central Louisiana from the evening hours on March 8 into the early morning hours on March 9. Two supercell thunderstorms produced a total of 3 tornadoes across Rapides Parish, while the repeated development of thunderstorms across eastern Vernon and Rapides Parishes caused widespread flash flooding.

NWS Storm Survey found an EF1 tornado touched down in Kisatchie National Forest. Many trees were uprooted and snapped which blocked several forestry roads.

NWS Storm Survey found an EF0 tornado began along Highway 3128 south of Libuse before ending northeast of the community. A few trees were blown down along Highway 3128 and in the far eastern portion of the Whispering Pines subdivison. Numerous trees were blown down around a home on Happy Acres Drive, with one tree falling onto and destroying an outbuilding. More trees were blown down along Philadelphia Road. Crossing Highway 28, the tornado blew down several more trees, with one falling onto and crushing a mobile home. An awning on a nearby home was also destroyed. More trees were blown down on Libuse Cutoff Road before the tornado lifted.

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

11 minutes of warning. NWS LCH issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:46 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 01:47 UTC and running to 09:00 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 00:33 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.

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 2011 tornado in LouisianaEvery tornado in Louisiana since 1950Warnings in force in Louisiana nowThe forecast where you are

4 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.