Tornadoes · United States · Louisiana · 2014

EF1 tornado, Ball, Louisiana, March 28, 2014

This EF1 tornado ran 1.5 miles across Rapides Parish on March 28, 2014, touching down at 9:23 PM CDT and reaching 200 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $100,000 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 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.

The record

Rating
EF1
Date
March 28, 2014
Touchdown
9:23 PM CDT (02:23 UTC)
Lifted
9:25 PM CDT (02:25 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
1.5 miles (2.4 km)
Path width
200 yards (183 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$100,000
County
Rapides Parish
Touchdown point
31.422, -92.423
Lift-off point
31.428, -92.398
Record number
1403282023-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A cold front pushed through the area during the 28th producing a round of severe weather across Central and South Louisiana. Hail, high winds and a tornado was reported during the event.

A tornado touched down north of Highway 1204 in Ball damaging several homes, vehicles, and other property. A house on the end of Eastbrook Trace had a large tree fall through the home. On Cooley Drive a truck and a car were hit by falling trees. Several other homes, barns, and outbuildings had trees fall on them causing less severe damage on Tall Timers Lane, Highway 165, and Burma Road. Between 25 and 50 trees were snapped along the path most of which were soft wood pine.

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

The warnings

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

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 00:46 UTC and running to 04:40 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
00:46 UTC04:40 UTCTornado WatchLCH
01:52 UTC02:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLCH
02:40 UTC03:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:45 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

2.4 hours before the tornado, 163 km from the path. March 29, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 2014-03-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2461 joules per kilogram, CIN -15, lifted condensation level 561 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 2014-03-29The 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 -5 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 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
2461 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-15 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3418 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
561 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
2 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-5 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
68 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.4
Supercell composite
2.2
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

9.6 hours after it, 163 km from the path. March 29, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 2014-03-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -87917, lifted condensation level 890 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 2014-03-29The 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 -103 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 47 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-87917 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
890 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
47 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-103 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-58 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Ft Polk radar (KPOE), 61 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:20 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.

What was reported nearby

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

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
01:57 UTCHAIL 1.75SimpsonVernon, LAPUBLIC REPORTS GOLFBALL SIZE HAIL IN SIMPSON.
02:07 UTCTSTM WND DMGBunkieAvoyelles, LAOBSERVER REPORTED TREE DOWN ON HOUSE ON ELM STREET.
02:10 UTCTSTM WND DMGColfaxGrant, LATREE DOWN ON A HOME. WIDESPREAD TREES AND POWERLINES DOWN
02:15 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 N AlexandriaRapides, LAPUBLIC REPORTS LARGE TREE LIMBS DOWN AT LOUISIANA COLLEGE.
02:15 UTCTSTM WND DMGBallRapides, LAAROUND 50 LARGE PINE TREES WERE DOWNED NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF HWY 165 AND TALL TIMBERS LANE. MANY WERE SNAPPED ANYWHERE FROM 4 TO 20 FEET ABOVE GROUND. SOME PINES WERE AROUND 2 FEET THICK. AT LEAST 3 HOUSES HAVE TREES
02:15 UTCTSTM WND GST 0AlexandriaRapides, LAHAM RADIO OPERATOR REPORTS WIND GUST OF 60 MPH.
02:15 UTCTSTM WND GST 60AlexandriaRapides, LAHAM RADIO OPERATOR REPORTS WIND GUST OF 60 MPH.
02:15 UTCTSTM WND DMGWinnfieldWinn, LAROOF RIPPED OFF OF A HOME. WIDESPREAD TREES AND POWERLINES DOWN THROUGHOUT THE PARISH.
02:19 UTCTSTM WND GST 67AlexandriaRapides, LAALEXANDRIA ASOS MEASURED A WIND GUST OF 67 MPH.
02:45 UTCTSTM WND DMGJenaLa Salle, LANUMEROUS TREES AND POWERLINES DOWN THROUGHOUT THE PARISH
03:00 UTCTSTM WND DMGJonesvilleCatahoula, LATREES AND LARGE LIMBS DOWNED ACROSS THE PARISH
03:00 UTCTSTM WND DMGJenaLa Salle, LAROOFS DAMAGED ON SEVERAL HOMES
03:00 UTCHAIL 0.75JenaLa Salle, LA

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2014 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.