EF3 Tornado — Caldwell, Louisiana

2022-11-29 · near Holum, Caldwell, Louisiana

Event narrative

An EF-3 tornado with estimated maximum winds near 140 mph touched down along Highway 126 in rural Southeast Caldwell Parish, just southeast of the Holum community. The most intense damage of the tornado occurred here as two residences were essentially destroyed. One residence was a one or two family residence which had its roof and most of its walls removed, with many interior walls collapsed. One injury occurred at this home, but fortunately, was not significant. A nearby single-wide mobile home was also destroyed from this tornado. In addition, many barns and/or outbuildings were destroyed in this general location and at least several livestock were killed. The peak 140 mph EF-3 rating of this tornado occurred here as well, due to observed tree debarking near the one or two family residence. Significant ground scouring near where the livestock were killed was also observed. This ground scouring is usually a trait associated with very intense tornado vorticies, but it is not an official damage indicator used to rate tornadoes.

From this location, the tornado continued roughly 3.5 miles east-northeast before crossing Wyant Road and the Twelve Mile Post Road intersection. The survey team did not have access in the 3.5 mile span before this intersection, but used available drone footage to confirm significant swaths of tree damage in this gap. Only tree damage was observed along Wyant Road, but the high level of tree snapping was enough to confirm EF-2 strength here. From here, the tornado continued along Wyant Road, which had turned northeast to criss-cross the tornado's path through the hillier terrain. The tornado damage showed a tendency for the tornado to narrow and weaken at times through the terrain, but it did continue without lifting until reaching the Ouachita River. Along the southwestern bank of the river, there were two homes that received significant damage and several outbuildings were totally destroyed with debris thrown into the river. The tornado crossed the river and did significant tree damage along Lee Lane. From there, the tornado continued east-northeast while gradually narrowing and weakening, crossing Highway 559 and Parish Road 6629. Based on a report from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, additional trees were downed on an unnamed road just east of the intersection of Hotshot Road and Parish Road 6629, with satellite imagery supporting that the tornado finally lifted just east of this road over the Boeuf Wildlife Management Area.

Wider weather episode

A large upper trough progressed east out of the Rockies and into the Plains during the afternoon and evening of November 29th, which reinforced a cold front southeast into the Ozarks and portions of the Southern Plains. Meanwhile, a dryline developed over West Texas ahead of the trough and front, and rapidly mixed east into East Texas and Southeast Oklahoma during the afternoon. Very warm and humid air quickly spread north with the strong low level southerly flow throughout the day on the 29th, resulting in moderately unstable conditions developing within a strongly sheared environment ahead of the approaching dryline and upper trough. Isolated strong to severe thunderstorms were able to develop near the dryline over portions of Deep East Texas by mid to late afternoon, which eventually spread across portions of North-Central Louisiana during the late afternoon and evening while becoming more numerous. Instances of damaging winds which downed trees as well as large hail occurred with these storms, with an isolated strong tornado spawning over Southeast Caldwell Parish before moving into Eastern Louisiana by late evening.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (31.9743, -92.0655)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1060628. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.