Tornadoes · United States · Louisiana · 2017

EF1 tornado, Wyatt to Weston, Louisiana, March 24, 2017

Name: EF1 tornado, Wyatt to Weston, Louisiana, March 24, 2017
Start: 2017-03-25T04:54:00.000Z
End: 2017-03-25T05:04:00.000Z
Location: Wyatt to Weston, Louisiana

From Wyatt to Weston, this EF1 tornado ran 6.9 miles across Jackson Parish on March 24, 2017, touching down at 11:54 PM CDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $15,000 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.

EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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 24, 2017
Touchdown: 11:54 PM CDT (04:54 UTC)
Lifted: 12:04 AM CDT (05:04 UTC)
On the ground: 10 minutes
Path length: 6.9 miles (11.1 km)
Path width: 100 yards (91 m)
Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $15,000
County: Jackson Parish
Touchdown point: 32.168, -92.688
Lift-off point: 32.242, -92.608
Record number: 1703242254-01

The damage survey

29 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.

roof of chicken house peeled back

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

What the Weather Service recorded

A closed upper level low pressure system drifted east across Northcentral Texas and Central Oklahoma during the afternoon of March 24th. Meanwhile, an intense surface low pressure system developed over Central Oklahoma, resulting in gusty southerly winds which quickly transported very warm and moist air northward across East Texas, North Louisiana, and Southern Arkansas. This resulted in an unstable air mass, and coupled with the strong wind shear in place and increased forcing ahead of this low pressure system, resulted in strong to severe thunderstorms developing during the early evening through a portion of the overnight hours. Numerous reports of damaging winds were received across East Texas, North Louisiana, and extreme Southern Arkansas, with several tornadoes also touching down across Harrison County Texas, as well as Desoto, Natchitoches, and Jackson Parishes in Northern Louisiana. The strongest storms exited Northcentral Louisiana by 1 am on March 25th, but strong, slow moving storms persisted through the overnight hours across the southern sections of Northcentral Louisiana, resulting in beneficial rainfall for these areas.

An EF-1 tornado with maximum estimated winds between 100-110 mph touched down along Highway 505 in Southern Jackson Parish between Highway 167 and Highway 4, southwest of Weston. The primary damage was snapped trees. However, one metal outbuilding was overturned.

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

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the tornado touched down, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Shreveport, LA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Mar 24, 11:29 PM CDT, 25 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Mar 24, 11:29 PM CDT, 25 minutes before

Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Shreveport LA
1129 PM CDT Fri Mar 24 2017

.AVIATION...
Line of stg to svr storms slowly shifting east of KSHV and KLFK,
reaching KELD attm, and KMLU by around 25/07z. Downburst winds and
storm rotation still evident. Isold convection also redeveloping
attm near KLFK and a thin band of convection developing across
extreme se OK, which could affect at least KTXK terminal by around
25/07-08z. Main dryline boundary movg west to east durg the day
Saturday, narrow line of weak convection possible right along
front where at least cumulus clouds will likely develop, with
otherwise VFR SKC expected areawide thru remainder of period.
South winds bcmg sw-w on Saturday, and then by late aftn, becmg
lgt and vrbl./VII/.

&&

.PREV DISCUSSION... /issued 959 PM CDT Fri Mar 24 2017/

DISCUSSION...
Have updated the forecast to add the additional severe
thunderstorm watch number 81 for much of Northwest and North
Central Louisiana generally along and North of Interstate 20 and
much of Southwest and South Central Arkansas along and near
and to the East of Interstate 30. Also to include Tornado watch
number 82 which takes in the previous Tornado watch number 80
counties for Deep East Texas and East Texas across Toledo Bend
Country across lower parts of Northwest and North Central
Louisiana. For North Louisiana three parishes are not under a
watch at this time and that being Ouachita, Caldwell, and La
Salle. /06/

PREV DISCUSSION... /issued 755 PM CDT Fri Mar 24 2017/

DISCUSSION...
Have updated the zones to include the new tornado watch number 80
that will include the 5 counties in lower parts of Northeast
Texas, Cherokee, Angelina, Nacogdoches, San Augustine, Sabine.
/06/

&&

.PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS...
SHV  60  76  53  84 /  90  20   0  10
MLU  64  79  53  83 /  90  50  10   0
DEQ  52  71  46  80 /  60  10   0  10
TXK  56  73  51  81 /  80  10   0  10
ELD  60  75  50  81 /  90  30   0  10
TYR  55  74  54  84 /  40   0   0  10
GGG  57  75  53  84 /  70  10   0  10
LFK  60  79  55  85 /  80  10   0  10

&&

.SHV WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
AR...Lake Wind Advisory until 1 AM CDT Saturday for ARZ050-051-
     059>061-070>073.

LA...Lake Wind Advisory until 1 AM CDT Saturday for LAZ001>006-
     010>014-017>022.

OK...Lake Wind Advisory until 1 AM CDT Saturday for OKZ077.

TX...Lake Wind Advisory until 1 AM CDT Saturday for TXZ096-097-
     108>112-124>126-136>138-149>153-165>167.

&&

In the hours before

Local storm report, Mar 24, 11:29 PM CDT, 25 minutes before

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Local storm report, Mar 24, 11:32 PM CDT, 22 minutes before

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Local storm report, Mar 24, 11:33 PM CDT, 21 minutes before

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Local storm report, Mar 24, 11:36 PM CDT, 18 minutes before

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Local storm report, Mar 24, 11:47 PM CDT, 7 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SHREVEPORT LA
1147 PM CDT FRI MAR 24 2017

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0923 PM     TSTM WND DMG     5 ESE GILLIAM           32.81N 93.76W
03/24/2017                   BOSSIER            LA   LAW ENFORCEMENT

            SEVERAL TREES DOWN ALONG OLD PLAIN DEALING
            ROAD NORTH OF HIGHWAY 160.

&&

CP

Local storm report, Mar 24, 11:54 PM CDT, 0 minutes before

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The surface observations

Ruston (RSN), 35 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)	Temp (°F)	Dew point (°F)	Wind	Gust (kt)	Pressure (mb)	Weather
00:00 UTC

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

The radar

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 115 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:52 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the track Every 2017 tornado in Louisiana Every tornado in Louisiana since 1950 Warnings in force in Louisiana now The forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of March 24, 2017

13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries	Damage
March 24	4:10 PM PDT	EF0	Clark, WA	2.3	15		$2,000
March 24	8:31 PM CDT	EF2	Harrison, TX	2.7	225		$90,000
March 24	9:58 PM CDT	EF0	Garland, AR	0.3	150
March 24	10:05 PM CDT	EF1	De Soto Parish, LA	2.1	220		$100,000
March 24	10:31 PM CDT	EF0	Hot Spring, AR	0.1	100
March 24	10:32 PM CDT	EF2	Saline, AR	1.1	150		$400,000
March 24	10:33 PM CDT	EF1	Saline, AR	1.9	200		$300,000
March 24	10:35 PM CDT	EF1	De Soto Parish, LA	1.5	110		$60,000
March 24	11:00 PM CDT	EF1	Natchitoches Parish, LA	8.5	2,464		$70,000
March 24	11:20 PM CDT	EF2	Pulaski, AR	2.1	100	6	$360,000
March 24	11:23 PM CDT	EF1	Pulaski, AR	2.2	100		$100,000
March 24	11:49 PM CDT	EF1	Winn Parish, LA	1.2	350		$3,000
March 24	12:23 AM CDT	EF0	Harris, TX	0.0	30		$15,000

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.