EF1 Tornado — Washington, Louisiana

2025-02-16 · near Varnado, Washington, Louisiana

Event narrative

An EF-1 tornado touched down near Lon Miley Rd sporadically snapping young pine trees as it tracked quickly northeast. The tornado intensified as it crossed LA Hwy 21 south of Varnado, LA where it snapped a swath of trees including some larger pine trees. The debris lofted produced a brief tornado debris signature on KHDC at 06:33 UTC. Additional large uprooted trees and snaps of pines were found on Ellis Rd, but the tornado began to weaken after this point as evidenced by less tree damage on Foster Town and Old Columbia Rd. The start and end points of the tornado were revised using high resolution satellite imagery after the ground survey.

Wider weather episode

Ingredients came together for severe storms to develop along a cold front moving through. Mid jet dynamics driven by the 850mb strengthening and built south through a scenario which is normally seen with a surface low moving through Oklahoma into Arkansas. Unusually high nocturnal instability in mid February was quite impressive and key to the ability for storms to be surface based. Extremely strong southeast winds preceding the frontal boundary ushered in ample low level moisture. All of those conditions aided in development of a line of severe storms along the frontal boundary as it moved through the local area.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (30.8500, -89.8700)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1244090. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.