EF1 tornado in Acadia Parish, Louisiana

The same storm that spawned the Gueydan tornado produced a second tornado that touched down on the north side of Bayou Queue de Tortue about 1.5 miles east of Riceville. The tornado then moved northeast and crossed Canvasback Road, before damaging a home and destroying an outbuilding on Kite Road. Several trees were also damaged along Kite Road. One tree was blown down onto Butterfly Road where the tornado crossed the roadway. The most significant damage was at a farm just west of the Butterfly Road/Highway 1115 intersection, where several outbuildings were destroyed and numerous trees blown down. Debris from the outbuildings was blown northward into fields on the west side of Highway 1115. On the east side of the highway between Leblanc Road and Butterfly Road, the tornado caused minor damage to the awning of one home, with moderate damage to the roof and porch of a second home. Debris from the porch blown into forested areas to the north of the home. The tornado then curved northward, passing just east of a home along Leblanc Road and damaging an outbuilding, before dissipating south of Highway 92.

A powerful upper level storm system moved across the Southern Plains and Lower Mississippi Valley from Wednesday, December 23, 2009, through Thursday, December 24, 2009. Numerous showers and elevated thunderstorms, including some supercells, repeatedly developed and moved northward across much of southwest Louisiana and the northern Gulf of Mexico from late Wednesday evening into Thursday morning. As the main upper level system approached Louisiana early Thursday morning, a squall line developed across east Texas and moved rapidly eastward across Louisiana, causing several reports of wind damage in southern Louisiana. Meanwhile, some of the elevated supercells became surface-based and tracked north-northeastward across south-central and east-central Louisiana, spawning at least a dozen tornadoes. In addition, the widespread rainfall caused flooding in some of these same areas.

In total, at least 12 tornadoes affected portions of Vermilion, Acadia, St. Landry, Evangeline, and Avoyelles Parishes within a two hour timespan from 7-9 AM. Seven tornadoes affected Acadia Parish alone, the biggest single outbreak of tornadoes ever recorded in that parish. Three tornadoes were rated EF2, three were rated EF1, and six were rated EF0. Other tornadoes likely occurred that were reported by area residents but could not be confirmed by NWS storm surveys. These included a likely tornado just east of I-49 in extreme northeastern Evangeline Parish, a possible tornado about 8 miles southwest of Gueydan, and another east of Palmetto in far northeastern St. Landry Parish. This was the largest outbreak of tornadoes in the NWS Lake Charles county warning area since November 23, 2004.