EF0 tornado, Westwego Arpt to Marrero, Louisiana, May 2, 2025

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

May 2, 2025

Touchdown

8:20 PM CDT (01:20 UTC)

Lifted

8:22 PM CDT (01:22 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.5 miles (0.7 km)

Path width

20 yards (18 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$15,000

County

Jefferson Parish

Touchdown point

29.879, -90.111

Lift-off point

29.885, -90.108

Record number

2505021920-01

11 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LIX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 83 mph.

• No connections and no other shingle damage or tree damage. Leaves blown around.
• Wind adjusted to lower bounds due to no connections and lack of damage to surrounding trees. Tossed to NW.
• Fence blown into other fence. SE to SW.
• This roof damage with the blue tarp is old. Grey looks new but can’t tell.

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

Widespread thunderstorm activity developed ahead of an approaching cold front. A disturbance moving across the western Gulf in the morning enhanced storm intensities which resulted in scattered wind damage reports northwest of Baton Rouge. Then, later in the day, a storm along the actual cold front spun off a weak tornado in the New Orleans area.

A brief EF-0 tornado with maximum winds of 80 mph touched down on the southeast side of Belle Terre Playground in Marrero, LA and tracked northeast. A shed was flipped near the starting point with no other damage found to the southwest. Another shed with no connection points was rolled on it's side on Adam Drive with minor roof damage noted to the home. A few other houses with minor roof damage were observed along the track to the northeast. On Victorian Drive, a small shed that was tied down with a few straps and posts in concrete was thrown northeast with other debris thrown northwest. Minor roof damage was also noted in this area. No damage was observed in the trees at the end of Marine Street and no damage was found farther to the northeast.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

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. The outlook in force was issued at 01:00 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.

New Orleans Nas (NBG), 10 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Hammond radar (KHDC), 76 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:22 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 2025 tornado in LouisianaEvery tornado in Louisiana since 1950Warnings in force in Louisiana nowThe forecast where you are

2 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.