EF1 tornado, Westdale to Woodardville, 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

4:35 PM CDT (21:35 UTC)

Lifted

4:58 PM CDT (21:58 UTC)

On the ground

23 minutes

Path length

13.3 miles (21.3 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

Counties

Red River and Bienville parishes

Touchdown point

32.180, -93.481

Lift-off point

32.271, -93.282

Record number

2104071535-01

24 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.

• Limbs on road, tree tops snapped
• Several trees snapped halfway up
• Trunk twisted, other limbs down
• Several medium sized tree limbs snapped

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

An upper level low pressure system shifted southeast across Southern Kansas during the morning and afternoon hours of April 7th, which drove a cold front southeast into Southeast Oklahoma, Southwest Arkansas, and Northeast Texas during the morning. A strong low level jet ahead of this upper low and associated cold front ushered ample Gulf moisture northward into East Texas and North Louisiana, with large scale forcing, shear, and instability increasing during the afternoon along and just ahead of the front contributing to the development of a line of severe thunderstorms across portions of North Louisiana. These storms produced multiple reports of large hail, damaging winds, and even a couple of isolated tornadoes across North Louisiana before exiting the area during the early evening.

An EF-1 tornado with estimated maximum winds near 105 mph touched down along Highway 1 near the Westdale community, snapping and uprooting numerous trees along Henry's BBQ Street as it moved eastward. The tornado crossed the Red River before taking a more northeastward track, snapping and uprooting numerous trees along Highway 515, Highway 71, Springhill Church Road, and Stephens Road. A roof of a building was also damaged on Springhill Church Road near Springhill Baptist Church. Upon crossing Stephens Road, the tornado entered Southern Bienville Parish.

This is a continuation of the Red River Parish tornado. This EF-1 tornado maintained its 105 mph intensity as it tracked through Southern Bienville Parish, crossing Boyette and Salters Roads. Numerous trees were snapped and uprooted as it continued to move northeast, before lifting just west of Highway 371 several miles south of Ringgold.

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

15 minutes of warning. NWS SHV issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:20 UTC, 15 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:38 UTC and running to 01:00 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:55 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.

Mansfield (3F3), 40 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 50 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:35 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.