Tornadoes · United States · Louisiana · 2012

EF0 tornado, Saint Bernard Parish, Louisiana, May 23, 2012

This EF0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Saint Bernard Parish on May 23, 2012, touching down at 3:07 PM CDT and reaching 33 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
May 23, 2012
Touchdown
3:07 PM CDT (20:07 UTC)
Lifted
3:08 PM CDT (20:08 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.2 miles (0.4 km)
Path width
33 yards (30 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$20,000
County
Saint Bernard Parish
Touchdown point
29.964, -89.990
Lift-off point
29.965, -89.987
Record number
1205231407-01

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

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 20:01 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.

Slidell Radar S, LA (KSIL), 12:00Z

8.1 hours before the tornado, 42 km from the path. May 23, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Slidell Radar S, LA at 12:00Z on 2012-05-23Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 665 joules per kilogram, CIN -62, lifted condensation level 1168 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, Slidell Radar S, LA at 12:00Z on 2012-05-23The 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 64 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 15 knots.1939Sfc1 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
665 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-62 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1168 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
64 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
98 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
2.1
0-3 km lapse rate
4.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Slidell Radar S, LA (KSIL), 00:00Z

3.9 hours after it, 42 km from the path. May 24, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Slidell Radar S, LA at 00:00Z on 2012-05-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1381 joules per kilogram, CIN -54, lifted condensation level 1276 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, Slidell Radar S, LA at 00:00Z on 2012-05-24The 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 -16 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 6 knots.1939Sfc1 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
1381 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-54 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3314 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1276 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-16 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-10 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

What was reported nearby

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

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
20:07 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Wnw ChalmetteSt. Bernard, LASEVEN TO EIGHT HOUSES HAD MINOR DAMAGE IN COMMUNITY OF ARABI IN SAINT BERNARD PARISH. CARPORT DESTROYED. TIME BASED ON RADAR
20:07 UTCTORNADO 02 Nw ChalmetteSt. Bernard, LASURVEY CONFIRMED A SHORT AND NARROW PATH ABOUT 0.25 MILES LONG AND 100 FEET WIDE. EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS OF A FUNNEL SIGHTED BEFORE STRIKING RESIDENCES. DAMAGE PATH STARTED NEAR CORNER OF PUMA AND CHINCHILLA STREETS...MOVED
20:10 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD3 N MetairieGmz530, LASKYWARN SPOTTER OBSERVED A FUNNEL CLOUD OVER LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN NORTH OF METARIE.

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

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.