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EF2 tornado in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana

Tornado March 21, 2012 · Vermilion Parish, Louisiana

EF2
Rating
4.2 mi
Path length
20 yd
Path width
1
Injury
$2.5M
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 20 yards (0.01 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 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 tornado began south of Gueydan near the LA 91 and LA 3143 intersection, where a large barn was destroyed and several homes had minor roof damage. Several gravestones were overturned at a local cemetary. When the tornado reached Gueydan, it flipped one single-wide mobile home that was tied down, destroying it, and heavily damaged two other mobile homes. At least 20 other homes in town received minor roof damage, and the town hall had roof damage as well. Numerous trees were snapped or blown down along the path. One minor injury happened in one mobile home when a man tried to escape his house after the storm and he stepped on broken glass, cutting his feet.

The wider storm

A cold front slowly moved into Southeast Texas and then into far west sections of Louisiana during the 20th. The cold front stalled upon entering Louisiana and then slowly moved back west through the evening before finally moving east in the morning of the 21st. The slow moving boundary produced severe weather and widespread flooding.

Began near Gueydan (29.9746, -92.5181).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

4 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 366418. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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