EF1 tornado, Hargis to Wheeling, Louisiana, April 2, 2017

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.

Rating

EF1

Date

April 2, 2017

Touchdown

4:12 PM CDT (21:12 UTC)

Lifted

4:23 PM CDT (21:23 UTC)

On the ground

11 minutes

Path length

4.4 miles (7.1 km)

Path width

1,108 yards (1013 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$70,000

Counties

Grant and Winn parishes

Touchdown point

31.692, -92.866

Lift-off point

31.745, -92.829

Record number

1704021512-01

25 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 107 mph.

• hit the out building in the back.
• 200 yards off the road to the east.
• trees uprooted both sides pointed different directions.
• landed on truck and camping trailer.

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

A strong upper level trough shifted east across Northern Mexico and into the Big Bend area of Southwest Texas during the early morning hours of April 2nd, before lifting northeast into North Texas during the afternoon. Meanwhile, an deepening surface low over North Texas allowed for warm, moist, and unstable air to stream north across East Texas and North Louisiana just south of a warm front as it stalled near the Interstate 20 corridor. Very strong wind shear and steepening lapse rates ahead of the ejecting upper level trough resulted in strong deep layer forcing for widespread strong to severe thunderstorms across East Texas south of Interstate 20, as well as much of Northcentral Louisiana. Numerous reports of wind damage and a few large hail reports were received across these areas, with several tornadoes (some strong) also having touched down across portions of Deep East Texas, Western and Central Louisiana. The majority of these tornado touchdowns were focused across Grant, Winn, Caldwell, and LaSalle Parishes, resulting in numerous snapped/uprooted trees, and damage to multiple homes across these areas. Fortunately, no injuries or fatalities occurred from these tornadoes.

An EF-1 tornado with maximum estimated winds between 90-95 mph touched down along Coon Trail Road in extreme Northwest Grant Parish near the Winn Parish line, where it snapped and uprooted numerous trees. This tornado tracked northeast into Southwest Winn Parish.

This is a continuation of the EF-1 tornado from Northwest Grant Parish. This tornado intensified as it moved into Southwest Winn Parish, where maximum estimated winds ranged between 100-110 mph, and tracked northeast across Davidson Road, where falling trees destroyed a truck and RV. A nearby house sustained roof damage as well. The tornado moved across Mitchell and McLane Roads, where several outbuildings were damaged, rolled, or destroyed. Other nearby homes also lost shingles from their roofs. This tornado finally lifted just north of Harrisonburg Road.

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

8 minutes of warning. NWS SHV issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:04 UTC, 8 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:04 UTC and running to 02:00 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 High Risk, with a 0.30 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:59 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.

Nattchitoches Regional Airport (IER), 24 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Ft Polk radar (KPOE), 64 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:09 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 2017 tornado in LouisianaEvery tornado in Louisiana since 1950Warnings in force in Louisiana nowThe forecast where you are

22 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.