EF3 Tornado — Caddo, Louisiana

2010-01-20 · near Lorraine, Caddo, Louisiana

Event narrative

The tornado was a continuation of the Harrison County tornado that produced EF3 damage across portions of Waskom, Texas. The tornado weakened significantly as it cross the Texas/Louisiana line and moved into Caddo Parish. A weakened tornado continued east crossing Greenwood Mooringsport road where several trees were uprooted and continued east over portions of western Cross Lake before lifting southwest of Blanchard. Maximum winds are estimated at 150-160 mph at the tornadoes strongest point.

Wider weather episode

A very warm and unstable air mass developed across the region on January 20th. This air mass was accompanied by unusually high dewpoint values for late January with ambient temperatures approaching the 70 degree mark. A very strong and vigorous storm system moved out of the Great Basin and into the Southern Plains and Lower Mississippi Valley during the late afternoon and evening hours of January 20th. Wind shear throughout the atmosphere was very strong and supportive of strong to severe thunderstorms. Low level wind shear was significant enough such that super cell thunderstorms developed across the region, producing tornadoes, large hail and damaging wind gusts. In addition to the severe thunderstorms, some storms produced flash flooding as they continued to train across the same general areas, especially across portions of northwest Louisiana and southwest Arkansas.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (32.5182, -94.0432)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 203449. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.