EF0 tornado in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana

Tornado May 12, 2017 · St. Charles Parish, Louisiana

EF0

Rating

6.8 mi

Whole path

40 yd

Path width

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through St. Charles Parish → Jefferson Parish; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 40 yards (0.02 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 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

A combination of local storm reports and high resolution satellite imagery helped to identify the track of an EF-0 tornado that occurred between Norco and Kenner, LA. This tornado developed near Airline Highway, just east of several refineries. A report of trees and power lines being downed on East Harding St further backed this satellite analysis. Sporadic patches of tree damage were evident on satellite imagery which continued eastward crossing Airline Hwy and into open marsh areas of St. Charles Parish. The most notable swath of tree damage occurred north of the I-310 and Airline Hwy interchange. The tornado then crossed I-310 causing minor vegetation damage near Decatur St. The tornado crossed briefly into Jefferson Parish where it uprooted a single tree and displaced an outdoor shed before lifting.

The wider storm

A line of thunderstorms ahead of a cold front moving through Louisiana produced many reports of severe weather during the morning and afternoon hours of the 12th.

Began near Good Hope (29.9934, -90.3836).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF1 East Baton Rouge Parish EF0 Iberville Parish EF0 Jefferson Parish EF0 St. Tammany Parish

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1296684. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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