EF2 tornado, Evangeline, Louisiana, August 29, 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 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

August 29, 2017

Touchdown

5:09 PM CDT (22:09 UTC)

Lifted

5:15 PM CDT (22:15 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

2.2 miles (3.5 km)

Path width

175 yards (160 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$200,000

County

Acadia Parish

Touchdown point

30.228, -92.578

Lift-off point

30.251, -92.603

Record number

1708291609-01

6 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LCH, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 115 mph.

• Small trailer with washer and dryer inside overturned
• Carport and roof destroyed
• loss of roofing and shingling

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

Harvey moved across the Gulf of Mexico into the central Texas Coast during the last week of August. After the initial landfall, the cyclone moved back into the gulf a couple days later and then made another landfall in Southwest Louisiana during the morning of the 30th. The first rains from the system moved across the region during the afternoon of the 25th and finally ended during the morning of September 1. One to 5 feet of rain fell across Southeast Texas during the week which in some cases was slightly more than a normal yearly rainfall total. Widespread flooding occurred and a new rainfall record was set regarding the total for a tropical cyclone in the United States.

A tornado touched down along Riverside Road south of Interstate 10 and south of Bamboo Road where hardwood trees were uprooted. The path continued northeast and crossed the interstate and Evangeline Highway. Along Evangeline Highway a small trailer was flipped. The tornado then crossed Riverside Road again damaging 4 homes, a pick-up truck, motorcycle, fencing, and downing 3 power poles. Of the homes damaged, two had roof damage, a trailer was moved off the blocks, and one was destroyed. The home that was destroyed had the majority of the roof removed and exterior wall failure. The path ended in the field behind the destroyed home. This tornado was also filmed and pictured by several individuals.

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

25 minutes of warning. NWS LCH issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:44 UTC, 25 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:15 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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:40 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.

The Lake Charles radar (KLCH), 61 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:06 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

2 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.