EF2 Tornado — St. Charles, Louisiana

2022-12-14 · near Killona, St. Charles, Louisiana

Event narrative

NWS Storm Survey found damage consistent with an EF-2 tornado with max winds of 120 mph and a max width of 75 yards in Killona/Montz, LA in St Charles Parish. The tornado touched down near the St Charles Sheriff s Office and Nelson Coleman Correctional Facility at 2:21PM, where it tore off some of the metal roofing sheets and tossed them across a nearby field. The tornado moved northeastward across Hwy 3141, Hwy 3127, and Adams street, snapping small trees and large branches. It then strengthened and crossed Railroad Drive and Schoolhouse Rds, where it destroyed 2 mobile homes and tossed and flipped another mobile home into a neighboring house. It uplifted the roofs of nearby houses and carried them away. Some houses lost their exterior walls. It then continued northeastward and crossed River Rd west of Waterford 3 Nuclear Facility. It crossed the Mississippi River, River Rd (628), and Etienne St. On Etienne St and River Rd, it tore the roof off of a home near the levee and shifted a mobile home off of its foundation. It also broke large branches off of a few trees. It continued northeastward, crossing Vickers Ln where it snapped a large oak tree and tore the porch off of a house. It also damaged the windows in vehicles at the nearby Cembell Industries, Inc. The tornado continued northeastward paralleling 628 (CC rd), where it snapped a few trees and broke off some large branches. It continued

northeastward across the Kansas Southern Railroad before lifting just before E Airline Hwy at 2:26PM. High resolution satellite coupled with radar imagery indicated the tornado deviated northward briefly toward Prescot Road after crossing Airline Hwy, but then turned east-northeast causing tree damage and defoliation per NDVI differencing. The tornado debris signature on KLIX and NDVI differencing supported the continuation of this path to the shore of Lake Pontchartrain and it's likely the tornado continued into the lake. Preliminarily, there was 1 fatality and 8 injuries associated with this tornado.

Wider weather episode

A strong upper level disturbance and surface low produced several supercell thunderstorms with embedded tornadoes across Southeast Louisiana and Southern Mississippi during the late afternoon and evening hours of Wednesday December 14, 2022. These supercell thunderstorms produced straight line wind damage and a several tornadoes in the area. Two EF-2 tornados impacted portions of the New Orleans metro area in St. Charles Parish, and in Jefferson, Orleans, and St. Bernard Parishes.

6 tornadoes have been confirmed from this event. These tornadoes have been determined to range in strength from EF0 to EF2 after NWS storm surveys were conducted. The St. Charles tornado resulted in 8 injuries and 1 fatality.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (29.9800, -90.5200)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1071358. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.