Tornadoes · United States · Louisiana · 2012

EF0 tornado, Oberlin, Louisiana, February 1, 2012

This EF0 tornado ran 3.7 miles across Allen Parish on February 1, 2012, touching down at 12:30 AM CST and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $20,000 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.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
February 1, 2012
Touchdown
12:30 AM CST (06:30 UTC)
Lifted
12:38 AM CST (06:38 UTC)
On the ground
8 minutes
Path length
3.7 miles (6.0 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$20,000
County
Allen Parish
Touchdown point
30.640, -92.830
Lift-off point
30.638, -92.767
Record number
1202010030-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A strong upper level disturbance fired up some showers and thunderstorms in the early morning hours, resulting in an isolated tornado near Oberlin.

A tornado touched down near the Calcasieu River west of Oberlin along Highway 26, snapping at least a dozen pine trees. Before it dissipated, it peeled part of the roof of a small barn on Garcile Road north of Oberlin.

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

The warnings

2 minutes of warning. NWS LCH issued a tornado warning for this county at 06:28 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 07:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
06:28 UTC07:00 UTCTornado WarningLCH
06:54 UTC07:05 UTCTornado WarningLCH

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. The outlook in force was issued at 05:32 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.

Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 00:00Z

6.5 hours before the tornado, 69 km from the path. February 1, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 2012-02-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 251 joules per kilogram, CIN -9, lifted condensation level 710 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 2012-02-01The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 88 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 37 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
251 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-9 J/kg
Surface CAPE
650 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
710 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
88 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
90 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
0.7
0-3 km lapse rate
6.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 12:00Z

5.5 hours after it, 69 km from the path. February 1, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 2012-02-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 717 joules per kilogram, CIN -10, lifted condensation level 525 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 2012-02-01The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 95 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
717 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-10 J/kg
Surface CAPE
841 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
525 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
95 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
146 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.3
Supercell composite
3.5
0-3 km lapse rate
5.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Oakdale/Allen Parish Airport (ACP), 16 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
04:35 UTC66.266.2140° 4 kt1020.3+RA
04:55 UTC66.266.20° 0 kt1020.3RA
05:15 UTC66.266.20° 0 kt1020.3-RA
05:35 UTC66.266.20° 0 kt1020.3-TSRA
05:55 UTC66.266.2290° 4 kt1020.3+RA
06:15 UTC6868240° 3 kt1020.3+VCTSRA
06:35 UTC6868230° 9 kt141020.3+TSRA
06:55 UTC64.464.4190° 5 kt91020.7+TSRA
07:15 UTC62.662.6160° 3 kt1020+TSRA
07:35 UTC62.662.6250° 4 kt1020+VCTSRA
07:55 UTC62.662.60° 0 kt1020TSRA
08:15 UTC64.464.4230° 7 kt1019.6+TSRA

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

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
06:30 UTCTORNADO4 Wnw OberlinAllen, LANWS STORM SURVEY CONFIRMED AN EF1 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN 4 MILES WNW OF OBERLIN. THE TORNADO CROSSED HIGHWAY 26 NEAR MUSSELWHITE RD AND CONTINUED EAST CROSSING GARCILLE RD BEFORE LIFTING. THE DAMAGE PATH WAS 3.7 MILES LONG
07:11 UTCTSTM WND DMGBeaverEvangeline, LATREES REPORTED DOWN.
08:05 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 W OberlinAllen, LAKPLC RELAYED A PUBLIC REPORT OF DAMAGE TO 2 HOMES. ONE WAS ON MUSSELWHITE RD 3 MILES WEST OF OBERLIN OFF OF HIGHWAY 26. THE SECOND WAS ALONG HIGHWAY 26. DAMAGE INCLUDED MINOR STRUCTURAL DAMAGE TO HOMES AS WELL AS TREES D

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2012 tornado in LouisianaEvery tornado in Louisiana since 1950Warnings in force in Louisiana nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of February 1, 2012

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
February 18:14 PM CSTEF0Monroe, MS0.125$25,000

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.