EF3 Tornado — Union, Louisiana

2022-12-13 · near Bayou D Arbonne Lake, Union, Louisiana

Event narrative

An EF-3 tornado with estimated maximum winds near 140 mph touched down near the shore of Lake D'Arbonne along Duty Road, where it tracked northeast while snapping and uprooting numerous hardwood and softwood trees, with trees falling on homes resulting in structural damage. The tornado then briefly moved back over the lake before crossing Highway 2 where several single family homes were heavily damaged and at least a few shops and outbuildings destroyed. The most heavily damaged structure, warranting a 130 mph wind speed estimate, was a two story home which had its roof and much of the second story removed or destroyed. Two injuries occurred within this home, although both were non-critical. The tornado then tracked over a small portion of the lake again before coming ashore and moving across Corney Creek Drive and Dozier Road. In this area, there were several residences damaged by falling trees, although one cabin was largely destroyed due to a combination of falling trees and wind forcing.

The tornado then tracked over a nearly 2 mile span where the survey team had no access, although a tornado debris signature on radar gave confidence that the circulation remained on the ground. The tornado had grown to a width of approximately 500 yards by the time it next crossed Denton Road, where many EF-2 damage indicators were found and four single family homes were heavily damaged or destroyed. One double-wide mobile home here was thrown and completely destroyed, with 5 injuries reported. A single-wide mobile home was also thrown and destroyed, although no injuries were known to the survey team at this location. Two one or two family homes in this location also suffered damage to roofs and some walls. Additionally, extreme tree damage with at least a few trees exhibiting some debarking were found in this area as well. Significant tree damage continued to the northeast as the tornado crossed Highway 15 and moved across Camp Road.

The most significant damage associated with this tornado occurred in the Camp Road area as the 400-500 yard wide tornado struck an apartment complex and an adjacent mobile home park. Here, seven of the nine single-wide mobile homes were thrown or completely destroyed. It is estimated that the strongest core of the tornadic winds only clipped the south end of the apartment complex, but one building in this area had a large portion of its roof and some exterior walls removed. This damage warranted the peak 140 mph EF-3 rating of the tornado with widespread mid to strong EF-2 damage occurring throughout this area. According to Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards, of the 74 units at this housing complex, only 12 of them were habitable following this tornado. The survey team received a confirmation of 14 total injuries, two of which were critical, from this tornado. However, details of which injuries occurred in associated to the various damaged structures along Camp Road were not known.

Afterwards, the tornado moved through a nearly 2 mile long heavily forested area inaccessible to the survey team, although the team did confirm strong EF-2 level tree damage did continue well into this forested area east of Camp Road. The tornado did weaken considerably as it crossed Feazel Road after traversing the wooded area. Here, only EF-1 level structural and tree damage was found. The tornado continued to track another mile or so, producing only EF-0 damage to trees before lifting along Sweet Lily Road.

Wider weather episode

A strong upper level low pressure system shifted northeast out of the Central Rockies across Eastern Colorado and Northwest Kansas during the day on December 13th, which allowed for surface low pressure to develop along an attendant cold front that extended south across Western Kansas into Western Oklahoma and Northwest Texas. Meanwhile, a tightening pressure gradient ahead of the front resulted in strong southerly low level winds across the Southern Plains and Lower Mississippi Valley, with an increase in warmer, more humid and unstable air spreading back north into East Texas and the Lower Mississippi Valley. Large scale forcing increased during the afternoon across East Texas ahead of the approaching upper trough, along a dry line that had mixed east ahead of the cold front. Thus, scattered showers and thunderstorms developed across much of East Texas and Western Louisiana, before becoming more numerous as they spread east across North-central Louisiana. Some of these storms became severe across North Louisiana as they tapped the strongly sheared air mass in place and the better instability contributed from daytime heating. A couple of isolated strong tornadoes were spawned across extreme Southwest Caddo Parish near the Four Forks community, as well as near Farmerville in Central Union Parish. These storms exited the region into Northeast Louisiana by late evening.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (32.7720, -92.4683)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1061296. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.