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EF0 tornado in St. James Parish, Louisiana

Tornado May 11, 2026 · St. James Parish, Louisiana

EF0
Rating
0.7 mi
Path length
10 yd
Path width
$5K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 10 yards (0.01 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 brief, weak EF-0 tornado touched down in the community of Paulina, LA causing minor uplift of shingles on two homes. The tornado tracked north-northeast from Lena Street to Angelle Street at around 8 miles per hour before it was estimated to have lifted. This damage was collocated with a tight tornado vortex signature visible on TMSY doppler radar. No additional damage was identified via reports or aerial imagery. Time estimated by radar.

The wider storm

A moist and moderately unstable airmass along a cold front moving through the region supported development of thunderstorms across southeast Louisiana late afternoon and evening of May 11th. Although weak low-level flow limited the overall severe-weather organization, locally heavy rainfall occurred in Baton Rouge metro as well as a brief tornado and associated wind damage in St. James Parish near Grand Point and Paulina.

Began near Hester (30.0300, -90.7400).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1343494. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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