EF1 Tornado — Caddo, Louisiana

2023-03-02 · near Norton, Caddo, Louisiana

Event narrative

An EF-1 tornado with estimated maximum winds near 100 mph initially touched down along Wildoak Drive where it uprooted trees and downed branches. It continued to Waterford Drive and Ellerbe Road. There, it damaged a fence and downed a few tree limbs before crossing Ellerbe Road. The tornado then went on to uproot, twist, and snap softwood trees before crossing Railsback Street. It then intermittently touched down several times as it moved over the Twelve Oaks Neighborhood, damaging shingles, knocking over basketball goals, and damaging

trampolines on at least 8 properties. A resident captured the tornado via their home security system. After crossing Flournoy Lucas Road, the tornado hit an apartment

building, damaging its chimney at The Oaks complex and breaking branches on several trees. The tornado continued on into the Azalea Gardens neighborhood, damaging shingles and breaking windows on homes. As the tornado continued on, it was documented by several residents with videos as it paralleled Village Green Drive, crossing over nine roads, damaging shingles, chimneys, and siding on homes. The worst damage occurred to a home on Kenshire Court which had much of its roof removed. At this location, the maximum winds were estimated at 100 mph. The tornado then moved on to cross Youree Drive at Sophia Lane, damaging the roofs of four commercial buildings, including a bank, a laundromat, an insurance agency, and a gas station. At the laundromat, a wall collapsed on one side of the building. The bank

had a portion of its roof damaged and metal panels removed from its awning. Two people were injured in a vehicle at this location, but did not require hospitalization. After the tornado crossed Youree Drive, it damaged the shingles on roofs of a few more homes and downed trees onto homes along four blocks. The tornado was

captured on video approaching the campus of LSU-Shreveport, where it downed branches and damaged a portion of the roof on a large building on the campus before lifting. In total, 98 single family homes and four businesses sustained damage with this tornado.

Wider weather episode

A potent upper-level trough progressed from the Four-Corners Region into the Texas Panhandle by late in the afternoon on March 2nd. Strong warm and moist air advection was ongoing in advance of the trough earlier in the morning. This resulted in scattered convection, but this had little effect on increasing instability through the afternoon as temperatures warmed into the mid and upper 70s to lower and mid 80s. Additionally, backing surface winds also promoted increasing low-level shear as well as deep-layer shear with a 50-60 knot low-level jet surging east ahead of the trough and advancing cold front. This environment was supportive of several supercells that developed by late afternoon into the early evening hours, producing several tornadoes in addition to large hail and damaging wind gusts. As the cold front surged east of I-35 by early in the evening, the storm mode eventually became more linear with an increasing threat of more widespread damaging winds along the complex of storms while the threats of large hail and isolated tornadoes continued through the end of the event.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (32.3627, -93.7087)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1086994. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.