EF2 tornado in La Salle Parish, Louisiana

This tornado developed from the same parent severe thunderstorm that spawned an earlier tornado across Eastern Grant and Western LaSalle parishes. The tornado snapped/uprooted numerous trees as it touched down in a heavily wooded area just south of IP 13 west of Brasher Road (8 miles north of Jena), and remained on the ground crossing Highway 126 and across an unpopulated area in Northeast LaSalle Parish consisting of heavy wooded areas and hunting leases. This tornado intensified as it crossed over into Catahoula Parish a few miles south of the Rosefield community.

Numerous trees along the path were snapped/uprooted. Strong rear flank downdraft wind damage was observed to one home south of the tornado path on Brasher Road. The back portion of the tin roof was peeled off/thrown forward into their front yard, with two trees uprooted across the street. Several trees that were blown down closed Highway 126 and several rural blacktop and gravel roads in the area. One hunting camp east of Highway 126 was heavily damaged as a mobile home was blown down a ravine and destroyed, and a nearby covered travel trailer was blown over on its side. Although EF-1 damage (95-105 mph) was observed with this tornado in Northcentral and Northeast LaSalle Parish, this tornado will be officially classified as an EF-2 as more substantial damage was found as it remained on the ground in Catahoula Parish.

A strong upper level short wave move from west to east across the Central Plains states of the U.S. driving a cold front southeast into the Four State Region. Strong to severe thunderstorms formed in the unstable air mass ahead of the cold front. The front and at least 3 lines of thunderstorms moved through the Four State Region from west to east during the day. Strong low level shear in the atmosphere allowed some thunderstorms to rotate, producing tornadoes with damaging straight line winds producing downbursts.