EF2 Tornado — Bossier, Louisiana

2009-04-09 · near Bossier City, Bossier, Louisiana

Event narrative

This storm developed over eastern Harrison County about 6 miles northwest of Waskom. This tornado first touched down about one half mile west of FM 134, continuing east across FM 9 about 3 miles north of Waskom, before entering western Caddo Parish. Numerous trees were uprooted and snapped, especially east of FM 9, and across Highway 169. This tornado followed North Lakeshore Drive, with numerous homes damaged, some of which had their roofs partially removed. In addition, one of the homes was moved off of its foundation. Near I-220 and Blanchard Road, 12 empty railroad cars were blown off the track, with intermittent damage along Blanchard Road going into downtown Shreveport. Large tree limbs and power lines were downed, while road signs were downed as well. The tornado crossed the Red River south of the Diamond Jacks Casino, where numerous homes were damaged due to trees between Arthur Ray Teague Parkway and Barksdale Blvd. On Barksdale Blvd itself, numerous power poles were downed, with many businesses damaged, and damage to the west gate of Barksdale Air Force Base. The storm did 2.5 million dollars worth of damage to the Barksdale Air Force Base itself with the damage including the west gate, the golf course, fitness center and Chapel Two. Approximately 80 trees were uprooted around the main base. The tornado lifted in eastern Bossier Parish along Highway 157 south of Haughton. This tornado was rated an EF2, with winds of around 120 mph, and the most extensive damage found in the Lakeview Subdivision on the north side of Cross Lake in Caddo Parish. The total path length from Harrison County Texas through Bossier Parish Louisiana was 38.5 miles. The path width fluctuated through this continuous track, varying from between 100 to 400 yards.

Wider weather episode

A strong upper level storm system along with a surface dry line/front

over northeast Texas moved east during the evening hours of April 9th into the early morning hours of April 10th causing long lived supercell thunderstorms. These thunderstorms caused long track tornadoes to occur across southeast Oklahoma, southwest Arkansas, northeast Texas, and north Louisiana.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (32.5040, -93.7115)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 154456. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.