EF0 tornado in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana

An EF-0 tornado with peak wind of 80 mph and max width of 50 yards rapidly developed within a line of storms near Blond, LA in St. Tammany Parish. This tornado predominantly uprooted and damaged tree branches and rotten trunks as it tracked from Allison Rd east-southeast through LA Hwy 40 before dissipating near Lee Road Junior High School.

Environmental conditions favorable for a QLCS (Quasi-Linear Convective System) tornado event developed across southeast Louisiana and southern Mississippi during the afternoon and evening hours of March 11th. An upper-level storm system moving east from Texas overspread a very moist and increasingly unstable air mass in place across the region. At the same time, intense low-level wind shear and strong atmospheric spin developed as southerly winds strengthened ahead of an approaching line of storms with bowing segments.

The combination of rich Gulf moisture, strong low-level atmospheric spin, and a fast-moving line of thunderstorms created an environment supportive of embedded rotating circulations along the leading edge of the QLCS. As that line moved west to east across the local area, several rapidly developing tornadoes formed within these circulations. A total of 8 tornadoes were confirmed across southeast Louisiana, including 2 with path lengths exceeding 10 miles. Well over a dozen additional reports of damaging straight-line winds were also received.