EF0 Tornado — Assumption, Louisiana

2024-01-08 · near Himalaya, Assumption, Louisiana

Event narrative

An EF0 tornado with maximum winds of 80 MPH touched down at the intersection of Highway 1011 and Supreme Cross Road in Supreme, LA. The tornado tracked almost due north-northeast along Highway 1011 before curving slightly northwest at the end. This was confirmed via radar. The west side of the road sustained the heaviest damage, all to manufactured homes. Only one actual mobile home was flipped and thrown into the fire station. This was noted to be of very degraded construction with only one strap seen. None of the homes surveyed had a sustained load path with strapping. A few were pushed slightly off their foundations with roof damage and undercarriage damage. To the east of Highway1011, these were well-built homes with only tree damage and minor roof/gutter damage. We do believe the tornado was wide enough to cause damage on both sides but the construction was better on theeast side, hence the lower damage. Around the intersections of Highway 1, Highway 1011, and Highway 308, there were trees down, a few pieces of roof pulled off and damage to a thrift store. The

concrete blocks at the top were pushed off with significant roof damage. Throughout the track, debris was noted well away from where it came from, with the thrift store's roof both to the eastand to the west. Debris indentations in the ground were widely seen and debris splatter was noted on all sides of the buildings. Also to note, off to the east on Highway 1014, power poles were leaning in one direction with very minor siding damage to a few manufactured homes. This is well away from the track and the damage is either straight-line winds or inflow from the tornado.

Wider weather episode

Moisture rich air with near record precipitable water, for this time of year, surged north from the Gulf of Mexico across the local area as a warm front lifted northward. Increased lift from both the warm/moist airmass and front boundary primed the environment for robust updrafts. Mid and upper levels of the atmosphere began to cool as an upper level system approached the area. That combo of of instability and ample moisture created an environment able to sustain a variety of severe weather ranging from a tornado to damaging winds and hail.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (29.8500, -90.9900)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1156450. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.