Tornadoes · United States · Louisiana · 2021

EF0 tornado, Lyons Pt, Louisiana, May 17, 2021

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Acadia Parish on May 17, 2021, touching down at 2:17 PM CDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5,000 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.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

    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 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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
May 17, 2021
Touchdown
2:17 PM CDT (19:17 UTC)
Lifted
2:18 PM CDT (19:18 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000
County
Acadia Parish
Touchdown point
30.101, -92.362
Lift-off point
30.101, -92.359
Record number
2105171317-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A cold front moved in and stalled while multiple upper level disturbances moved through. High moisture levels and ample lift provided a few days of flooding and severe thunderstorms.

Minor damage from a tornado occurred to a home on Highway 13. Pictures of a thin tornado were also sent in through social media.

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

The warnings

13 minutes of warning. NWS LCH issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:04 UTC, 13 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:30 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
16:21 UTC18:00 UTCFlash Flood WatchLCH
19:04 UTC19:30 UTCTornado WarningLCH
19:27 UTC20:00 UTCTornado WarningLCH
19:57 UTC20:30 UTCTornado WarningLCH
20:29 UTC01:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningLCH
20:29 UTC20:54 UTCTornado WarningLCH
20:30 UTC20:46 UTCTornado WarningLCH
20:37 UTC21:15 UTCTornado WarningLCH
21:08 UTC21:45 UTCTornado WarningLCH
21:44 UTC22:15 UTCTornado WarningLCH
22:12 UTC23:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLCH
23:01 UTC05:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningLCH
00:35 UTC06:30 UTCFlood WarningLCH

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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:38 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

7.3 hours before the tornado, 81 km from the path. May 17, 2021.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 2021-05-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 626 joules per kilogram, CIN -14, lifted condensation level 699 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 2021-05-17The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 207 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 32 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
626 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-14 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2002 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
699 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
207 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
314 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.7
Supercell composite
10.3
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 00:00Z

4.7 hours after it, 81 km from the path. May 18, 2021.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 2021-05-18Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 114 joules per kilogram, CIN -166, lifted condensation level 1016 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 2021-05-18The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -80 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 29 knots.1939Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
114 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-166 J/kg
Surface CAPE
761 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1016 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-80 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-51 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Lake Charles radar (KLCH), 82 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:17 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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
17:48 UTCTORNADO1 Nnw ArnaudvilleSt. Landry, LAVIDEO OF A THIN TORNADO NEAR ARNAUDVILLE. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR AND POST.
18:14 UTCTORNADO4 Se IowaJefferson Davis, LAPICTURE OF A TORNADO NEAR CLIFTON ROAD LOOKING WEST TOWARD THE AVA SUBDIVISION. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR.
18:27 UTCHAIL 0.255 S FentonJefferson Davis, LAESTIMATED PEA SIZE HAIL OFF OF HWY 101 NORTH OF LACASSINE
19:17 UTCTORNADO1 Ene Lyons PointAcadia, LAPHOTOS OF LIKELY TORNADO DAMAGE RELAYED FROM LYONS POINT FD. ADDITIONAL VIDEO PROVIDED OF TORNADO ON GROUND NEAR LYONS POINT. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR.
19:25 UTCTORNADO4 Sse CrowleyAcadia, LAPUBLIC WITNESSED TORNADO ON THE GROUND IN SOUTHERN ACADIA PARISH NEAR HWY 13
20:30 UTCTORNADO4 Nnw JenningsJefferson Davis, LAROPE TORNADO MOVED ACROSS A FIELD THEN LIFTED.
21:12 UTCTORNADO5 Ne CrowleyAcadia, LAPUBLIC REPORTS TORNADO

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2021 tornado in LouisianaEvery tornado in Louisiana since 1950Warnings in force in Louisiana nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 17, 2021

16 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 1711:43 AM MDTEF0Socorro, NM0.750
May 1712:48 PM CDTEF0Saint Landry Parish, LA0.210
May 171:13 PM CDTEF0Saint Landry Parish, LA0.110
May 171:14 PM CDTEF0Jefferson Davis Parish, LA0.010
May 171:17 PM CDTEF0Calcasieu Parish, LA1.110$10,000
May 1712:45 PM MDTEF0Valencia, NM0.050
May 171:08 PM MDTEF0Sandoval, NM1.750
May 173:30 PM CDTEF0Jefferson Davis Parish, LA0.210
May 174:12 PM CDTEF0Acadia Parish, LA0.110
May 173:45 PM MDTUnratedCarbon, WY0.320
May 174:23 PM MDTEF0Curry, NM0.350
May 174:33 PM MDTEF0Quay, NM2.760
May 176:34 PM CDTEF0Stanton, KS0.450
May 176:35 PM CDTUnratedOldham, TX0.920
May 177:11 PM CDTEF2Sterling, TX11.41,056
May 177:50 PM CDTUnratedHockley, TX0.430

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.