EF2 Tornado — Bossier, Louisiana

2020-01-11 · near Sligo, Bossier, Louisiana

Event narrative

A long track 40+ mile long EF-2 tornado with estimated maximum winds near 135 mph first touched down just south of Barksdale Air Force Base off of Sligo Road in Central Bossier Parish, where it snapped and uprooted hundreds of softwood and hardwood trees and damaged several carports and outbuildings. The tornado then crossed the far southeast corner of Barksdale Air Force Base where at least one hundred trees were snapped or uprooted. After the tornado exited the corner of Barksdale Air Force Base, it strengthened south of Haughton to produce its most significant damage, completely destroying a single-wide manufactured home and a double-wide manufactured home off of Davis Road. Two fatalities (a 79 year old male and his 65 year old wife) occurred in the double-wide with an additional fatality (an 87 year old male) occurring in the single-wide. The tornado continued to produce roof damage and uproot and snap trees which fell into homes in Eastern Bossier Parish, concentrated most along James Lane. The tornado continued moving northeast across Oliver Road and Camp Zion Road, where numerous trees were snapped and uprooted, while also removing siding off of a single-wide manufactured home, and ripping a portion of the metal exterior and doors off of the Bossier Parish Fire District 1 Station 6 building, as well as tearing off some vinyl siding to a mobile home living quarters located next door, before crossing over into Webster Parish.

Wider weather episode

An upper level longwave trough emerged out of the Intermountain West and into the Central and Southern Plains during the daytime and evening hours of January 10th. A strong southerly return flow commenced out ahead of the trough during the 8th-9th, allowing for unseasonably warm and humid conditions to advance northward across Southern Oklahoma, much of Central and Eastern Texas, as well as Louisiana, Arkansas, and the Lower Mississippi Valley. Meanwhile, an intensifying surface low pressure system and associated dry line developed along the Red River of North Texas into Southern Oklahoma during the afternoon hours, which spread east northeast across the Ark-La-Tex during the early morning hours on January 11th. With afternoon temperatures climbing into the mid 70s ahead of this trough, moderate instability developed across the broad warm sector, with very strong wind shear in place as large scale forcing increased ahead of the trough axis across East Texas, Southeast Oklahoma, Southwest Arkansas, and North Louisiana. Thus, an axis of strong to severe showers and thunderstorms developed during the evening hours across Southeast Oklahoma, adjacent sections of Southwest Arkansas and East Texas, which advanced east into North Louisiana during the early morning hours of the 11th. Widespread damaging winds downed trees and power lines across much of Northwest and Northcentral Louisiana, with even a long track tornado developing along the line of severe thunderstorms across Central Bossier, Southern Webster, and Southern Claiborne Parishes. Another isolated tornado touched down in Western Union Parish, before these storms exited the region shortly before daybreak on the 11th. Unfortunately, these storms resulted in four fatalities across Northwest Louisiana, three of which occurred from the Haughton tornado.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (32.4571, -93.5875)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 866960. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.