EF1 tornado, Jones to Laark, Louisiana, April 7, 2021

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 7, 2021

Touchdown

8:06 PM CDT (01:06 UTC)

Lifted

8:10 PM CDT (01:10 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

2.7 miles (4.3 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$150,000

County

Morehouse Parish

Touchdown point

32.918, -91.567

Lift-off point

32.932, -91.524

Record number

2104071906-01

10 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS JAN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.

• Shed destroyed, overturned and rolled. Large RV overturned.
• a few large branches and smaller trees downed, approximate start of event.
• Smaller section of shingled roof removed, attached garage wall and connecting wall damaged.
• A few older wooden power poles downed.

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

Moist southerly flow and daytime heating ahead of a strong trough combined with sufficient wind shear to bring a line of severe storms through the region. Within this line, a few tornadoes and some wind damage occurred across Louisiana and Arkansas and the Delta of Mississippi.

An EF-1 tornado developed on the evening of April 7th near Holly Ridge Road in northeast Morehouse Parish. The tornado damaged a tin awning, removing several sheets and tossing them into a field nearby. The tornado continued northeast where it strengthened to its maximum intensity and damaged a mixed stand of predominantly older pecan and a few oak trees. The majority of trees in this area were snapped or pushed over. Continuing northeast, the tornado downed a few power poles and trees as well as damaged a few structures near Zaunbrecher Road. One home lost most of a wall of an attached garage and had some roofing damage while another outbuilding had its door blown in. The tornado continued northeast a brief distance further before dissipating in a nearby field. The max estimated wind speed was around 100 mph.

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

38 minutes of warning. NWS JAN issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:28 UTC, 38 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:15 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:33 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 Jackson/Brandon,MS radar (KDGX), 163 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:03 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 2021 tornado in LouisianaEvery tornado in Louisiana since 1950Warnings in force in Louisiana nowThe forecast where you are

10 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.