EF2 tornado, Lee Hgts to Pineville, Louisiana, December 25, 2012

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

December 25, 2012

Touchdown

12:45 PM CST (18:45 UTC)

Lifted

12:48 PM CST (18:48 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

4.6 miles (7.4 km)

Path width

500 yards (457 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

Property damage

$2.0 million

County

Rapides Parish

Touchdown point

31.360, -92.487

Lift-off point

31.379, -92.412

Record number

1212251245-01

A warm front lifted out of the Gulf of Mexico early Christmas morning with mostly small hail in storms along the boundary, however one storm did become severe. A strong cold front pushed out of Texas and across Louisiana during late Christmas morning into the afternoon with Severe Thunderstorms and Tornadoes. Strong northwest winds behind the boundary created low tides along the coast.

A NWS survey confirmed an EF 2 tornado touched down in the woods southwest of in the town of Tioga and traveled into town. The tornado produced a damage path four to five miles long and 500 yards wide. The tornado damaged approximately 43 homes with a brick home having the roof almost totally ripped off. The tornado also damaged the Tioga Elementary School and an industrial complex along highway 167. At the school part of the roof of the gym was removed. At the industrial complex 5 18 wheeler trailers flipped over, several large overhead doors were blown in, and a large section of the metal roof was peeled off. One person was injured with very minor bumps and bruises when a mobile home rolled over.

A NWS storm survey confirmed an EF 2 tornado touched down in the city of Alexandria. The tornado produced a damage path near 1 mile long and 200 yards wide. The tornado began in a residential area between Polk and White Streets downing trees onto homes and removing some roofing material. It ripped roofs off some businesses including around the Washington Square Complex. The tornado moved across Interstate 49 and dissipated between Lee and Saint James Streets where several more homes and a church lost some roofing material.

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

22 minutes of warning. NWS LCH issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:23 UTC, 22 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 15:20 UTC and running to 20:19 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 16:19 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 International/England Afb (AEX), 11 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

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 2012 tornado in LouisianaEvery tornado in Louisiana since 1950Warnings in force in Louisiana nowThe forecast where you are

32 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.