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EF2 tornado in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana

Tornado April 10, 2024 · West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana

EF2
Rating
14.6 mi
Whole path
700 yd
Path width
$20K
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through West Feliciana Parish → Wilkinson County, Mississippi; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 700 yards (0.40 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

An EF-2 tornado developed near Bains Road and Oak Grove Road from the culmination of numerous subtornadic vortices which could be evidently seen in linear swaths of tree damage extending southwestward toward US Hwy 61. The tornado continued to organize near Virginia Lane and Belmont Drive causing minor damage to a home and tree damage. Aerial drone footage in conjunction with high resolution satellite imagery and a follow up ground survey uncovered a swath of tree damage with numerous snaps and uproots west of Stirling Rd. As the tornado raced north-northeast, it quickly grew in size and strength and the most significant damage began after the tornado crossed Polk Brannon Road. Aerial drone footage denoted a large section of significant tree damage resulting in 70-80% of tree fall in a strongly convergent pattern. This is where the tornado was estimated to be at its strongest and widest. Ground survey was able to access along Spillman and Jones Vaughn Creek Road where numerous trees were snapped, large hardwood trees were uprooted, and several wooden electrical transmission poles were snapped. The damage path was measured to be around a half mile wide in this vicinity with widespread tornadic damage evident in combination with the Labarre-Bains tornado that was estimated to have crossed just to the west. Ground surveys were impeded in Spillman due to widespread tree damage from this tornado, but the prolific damage path remained between 150 and 350 yards wide as it tracked northeast along Highway 421. The complex interaction between this tornado and the Labarre-Bains tornado at the latter stage of its life likely contributed to the fluctuation in the damage path width. High resolution satellite analysis was used to provide the end point for this tornado in which the tornado finally lifted after crossing into rural parts of Wilkinson County in Mississippi.

The wider storm

A strong upper level disturbance, surface low, and cold front produced a line of severe thunderstorms that pushed across Southeast Louisiana and Southern Mississippi in the morning and early afternoon hours of Wednesday, April 10, 2024. The line of severe thunderstorms produced strong straight line winds, extensive flash flooding in the New Orleans metro area and several tornadoes. The strongest tornado was an EF-2 tornado that impacted the city of Slidell in St. Tammany Parish, LA on the morning of the 10th. 7 tornadoes have been confirmed from this event. 4 of those 7 touched down and tracked across just the city of Slidell. At one point, as many as 3 of those 7 were on the ground at the same time. These tornadoes have been determined to range in strength from EFU to EF2 after NWS storm surveys and high resolution satellite analysis were conducted.

Began near Beechwood (30.8401, -91.3737).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

4 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1172705. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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