Tornadoes · United States · Louisiana · 2019
EF2 tornado, Union Hill, Louisiana, December 16, 2019
This EF2 tornado ran 3.6 miles across Rapides Parish on December 16, 2019, touching down at 10:29 AM CST and reaching 147 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $200,000 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 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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
- EF2
- Date
- December 16, 2019
- Touchdown
- 10:29 AM CST (16:29 UTC)
- Lifted
- 10:36 AM CST (16:36 UTC)
- On the ground
- 7 minutes
- Path length
- 3.6 miles (5.7 km)
- Path width
- 147 yards (134 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $200,000
- County
- Rapides Parish
- Touchdown point
- 30.927, -92.793
- Lift-off point
- 30.974, -92.767
- Record number
- 1912161029-01
The damage survey
27 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 128 mph.
- EM report of Perkins Feed Farm with roof off and trees down.
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 cold front pushed across Louisiana with showers and storms ahead of the boundary. A couple storms produce tornadoes with one being long tracked.
The tornado formed on the south end of a line of thunderstorms during the mid part of the morning. The tornado touched down just south of LA 462 near Simon Doyle Road where it downed trees and caused damage to one home. The tornado then moved North northeast to the middle section of Doshie Road where it it snapped trees and caused roof damage to several homes and barns. As the tornado moved further north up Doshie Road it strengthened to an EF2 intensity uprooting trees and taking off|the roof of the Perkins Feed Farm Building as well as damaging other nearby structures.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
16 minutes of warning. NWS LCH issued a tornado warning for this county at 16:13 UTC, 16 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 16:45 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16:07 UTC | 16:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | LCH |
| 16:13 UTC | 16:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | LCH |
| 16:27 UTC | 16:47 UTC | Tornado Warning | LCH |
| 16:42 UTC | 23:52 UTC | Tornado Watch | LCH |
| 17:53 UTC | 18:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | LCH |
| 18:26 UTC | 19:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | LCH |
| 18:41 UTC | 19:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | LCH |
| 19:36 UTC | 20:04 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | LCH |
| 19:52 UTC | 20:02 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | LCH |
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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 12:50 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), 12:00Z
4.5 hours before the tornado, 101 km from the path. December 16, 2019.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1821 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -8 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1484 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 539 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 45 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 29 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 188 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 205 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 1.9
- Supercell composite
- 10.8
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.2 K/km
Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 00:00Z
7.5 hours after it, 101 km from the path. December 17, 2019.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -25457 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 579 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 53 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 26 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -1 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 132 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 1.4
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.0 K/km
The surface observations
Oakdale/Allen Parish Airport (ACP), 24 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14:38 UTC | 71.6 | 69.8 | 160° 6 kt | 1013.2 | BR | |
| 14:58 UTC | 73.4 | 69.8 | 170° 6 kt | 1013.2 | ||
| 15:18 UTC | 73.4 | 69.8 | 160° 6 kt | 1013.5 | ||
| 15:38 UTC | 73.4 | 69.8 | 160° 4 kt | 1013.2 | ||
| 15:58 UTC | 73.4 | 69.8 | 150° 5 kt | 1013.2 | ||
| 16:18 UTC | 73.4 | 69.8 | 150° 4 kt | 1012.9 | ||
| 16:38 UTC | 75.2 | 69.8 | 140° 5 kt | 1012.5 | ||
| 16:58 UTC | 75.2 | 69.8 | 150° 4 kt | 1012.2 | ||
| 17:18 UTC | 73.4 | 69.8 | 160° 5 kt | 1011.9 | -RA | |
| 17:38 UTC | 75.2 | 69.8 | 150° 6 kt | 1011.5 | ||
| 17:58 UTC | 75.2 | 69.8 | 160° 7 kt | 1010.8 | VCTS | |
| 18:18 UTC | 77 | 69.8 | 180° 12 kt | 19 | 1010.2 | VCTS |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Ft Polk radar (KPOE), 29 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 16:29 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16:35 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Sw Union Hill | Rapides, LA | |
| 17:15 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Ene De Ridder | Beauregard, LA | DAMAGE REPORTED IN THE NORTHEAST PORTIONS OF DERIDDER FROM A POSSIBLE TORNADO. |
| 17:17 UTC | TORNADO | 6 Ne De Ridder | Vernon, LA | SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE REPORTED ALONG HWY 1146 NEAR CHURCHMAN RD. PUBLIC VIDEO OF TORNADO TO GO ALONG WITH DAMAGE REPORTS. |
| 17:18 UTC | TORNADO | 5 Ne De Ridder | Vernon, LA | *** 1 FATAL *** ONE CONFIRMED FATALITY ON IKES ROAD/LA 1146 |
| 17:32 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 W Cravens | Vernon, LA | NUMEROUS TREES DOWN AND DAMAGE REPORTED AT MARLOW CHURCH ALONG HWY 10. TORNADO POSSIBLE. |
| 18:48 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Wnw Alexandria | Rapides, LA | VIDEO FROM AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL TOWER AT THE ALEXANDRIA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT OF A LARGE TORNADO ON THE GROUND JUST SOUTHEAST OF THE AIRPORT. |
| 18:50 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Nw Alexandria | Rapides, LA | TORNADO SEEN CROSSING LA 1 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2019 tornado in LouisianaEvery tornado in Louisiana since 1950Warnings in force in Louisiana nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of December 16, 2019
37 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 16 | 10:10 AM CST | EF1 | Bossier Parish, LA | 26.2 | 250 | $520,000 | ||
| December 16 | 11:08 AM CST | EF1 | Claiborne, LA to MS | 11.7 | 600 | $84,000 | ||
| December 16 | 11:10 AM CST | EF3 | Beauregard Parish, LA | 62.6 | 550 | 1 | $25 million | |
| December 16 | 11:48 AM CST | EF1 | Warren, MS | 22.3 | 616 | $502,000 | ||
| December 16 | 2:34 PM CST | EF2 | Franklin, MS | 4.2 | 720 | $125,000 | ||
| December 16 | 2:34 PM CST | EF3 | Amite, MS | 30.3 | 880 | 3 | $500,000 | |
| December 16 | 3:18 PM CST | EF0 | Amite, MS | 5.0 | 50 | |||
| December 16 | 3:39 PM CST | EF1 | Amite, MS | 1.6 | 75 | |||
| December 16 | 3:41 PM CST | EF1 | Union, MS | 9.3 | 300 | 1 | $250,000 | |
| December 16 | 3:42 PM CST | EF1 | Tangipahoa Parish, LA | 4.9 | 75 | |||
| December 16 | 3:45 PM CST | EF0 | Calhoun, MS | 2.6 | 60 | $10,000 | ||
| December 16 | 3:53 PM CST | EF2 | Lee, MS | 9.4 | 250 | $750,000 | ||
| December 16 | 3:55 PM CST | EF0 | Lee, MS | 2.2 | 80 | $10,000 | ||
| December 16 | 4:04 PM CST | EF0 | Lincoln, MS | 0.4 | 50 | $40,000 | ||
| December 16 | 4:14 PM CST | EF0 | Prentiss, MS | 0.3 | 75 | $50,000 | ||
| December 16 | 4:27 PM CST | EF1 | Tishomingo, MS | 3.5 | 150 | $350,000 | ||
| December 16 | 4:41 PM CST | EF2 | Marion, MS | 7.4 | 350 | $300,000 | ||
| December 16 | 4:44 PM CST | EF2 | Lawrence, MS | 10.7 | 600 | 1 | $585,000 | |
| December 16 | 4:50 PM CST | EF1 | Colbert, AL | 0.7 | 75 | |||
| December 16 | 4:52 PM CST | EF2 | Colbert, AL | 8.2 | 250 | |||
| December 16 | 4:55 PM CST | EF0 | Lawrence, TN | 3.8 | 25 | $15,000 | ||
| December 16 | 4:56 PM CST | EF1 | Marion, MS | 6.2 | 440 | $50,000 | ||
| December 16 | 5:08 PM CST | EF2 | Lawrence, AL | 18.5 | 370 | 2 | ||
| December 16 | 5:17 PM CST | EF3 | Lamar, MS | 5.8 | 560 | $510,000 | ||
| December 16 | 5:19 PM CST | EF3 | Simpson, MS | 18.6 | 1,320 | $705,000 | ||
| December 16 | 5:20 PM CST | EF1 | Lauderdale, AL | 2.9 | 500 | |||
| December 16 | 5:30 PM CST | EF1 | Limestone, AL | 9.5 | 50 | |||
| December 16 | 5:41 PM CST | EF0 | Marshall, TN | 3.5 | 50 | $15,000 | ||
| December 16 | 5:50 PM CST | EF0 | Lincoln, TN | 3.2 | 50 | |||
| December 16 | 5:54 PM CST | EF1 | Madison, AL | 1.3 | 25 | |||
| December 16 | 5:59 PM CST | EF3 | Jones, MS to AL | 61.2 | 350 | 2 | $1.2 million | |
| December 16 | 6:05 PM CST | EF0 | Madison, AL | 3.2 | 37 | |||
| December 16 | 8:07 PM CST | EF2 | Marengo, AL | 6.0 | 350 | 3 | ||
| December 16 | 9:03 PM CST | EF0 | Hale, AL | 5.3 | 300 | |||
| December 16 | 9:49 PM CST | EF0 | Bibb, AL | 3.1 | 200 | |||
| December 16 | 10:00 PM CST | EF1 | Bibb, AL | 2.6 | 300 | |||
| December 16 | 10:07 PM CST | EF0 | Shelby, AL | 2.3 | 200 |
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.