EF0 tornado, Farmerville to Canbeal, Louisiana, May 25, 2011

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

May 25, 2011

Touchdown

7:58 PM CDT (00:58 UTC)

Lifted

8:10 PM CDT (01:10 UTC)

On the ground

12 minutes

Path length

5.5 miles (8.9 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Union Parish

Touchdown point

32.755, -92.390

Lift-off point

32.751, -92.295

Record number

1105251858-01

18 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS SHV, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 96 mph.

• Several small to mid sized limbs snapped
• Several trunks snapped and trees uprooted on a home
• home damaged by falling trees

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

Severe thunderstorms developed along and ahead of a dry line which moved out of north Texas and southern Oklahoma. Shear was very strong ahead of the dry line in the lower and mid levels of the atmosphere. The result was wind damage, hail and a few tornadoes reported across the region.

The National Weather Service conducted a storm survey in Union Parish and concluded that damage was the result of an EF0 tornado. The tornado first touched down over Bayou Darbonne per eyewitness accounts as a rain wrapped tornado. The tornado tracked east crossing Terral Island Road snapping numerous tree branches. The tornado continued east primarily damaging trees southeast of Farmerville. The tornado then travelled along Hwy. 2 east of Farmerville snapping a few trees and large limbs before lifting near the intersection of Hwy. 2 and Joe Rodgers Road. The maximum winds are estimated at 70-75 mph.

The National Weather Service conducted a storm survey in Union Parish and concluded that damage was the result of an EF1 tornado. The tornado first touched down west of Farmerville south of Hwy. 2 snapping numerous trees in a neighborhood along Bayou Darbonne. The tornado continued east along Hwy. 2 snapping trees and powerlines eventually crossing the highway near Selig St. moving across the north side of Farmerville. The tornado crossed Marion Highway near Old Carr Road snapping numerous trees and powerlines and continued northeast crossing Tech Drive where several trees were downed onto homes causing significant damage to a few homes. The tornado continued northeast along Hudson Road snapping a few trees and eventually lifting west of John Edwards Road. Much of the town of Farmerville was without power for more than 24 hours including the hospital which ran on generators for more than 24 hours. The maximum winds were estimated at 85-90 mph.

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

16 minutes of warning. NWS SHV issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:42 UTC, 16 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:20 UTC and running to 02:46 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 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:39 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.

Ruston (RSN), 35 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 144 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:57 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 2011 tornado in LouisianaEvery tornado in Louisiana since 1950Warnings in force in Louisiana nowThe forecast where you are

93 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 94 of them

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.