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EF3 tornado in Rapides Parish, Louisiana

Tornado December 16, 2019 · Rapides Parish, Louisiana

EF3

Rating

62.6 mi

Whole path

525 yd

Path width

Death

$25.0M

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Beauregard Parish → Vernon Parish → Rapides Parish; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 525 yards (0.30 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF3 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF3 is severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, consistent with estimated gusts of 136–165 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

The tornado moved into Rapides Parish from Vernon Parish crossing Highway 121 as an EF1. Large branches were snapped off. The tornado was about 230 yards wide as it crossed Hwy 1199 and Clint Louis Road. The tornado continued to uproot or snap trees and at this point was about 8 miles southwest of Alexandria.

The tornado strengthened again briefly to an EF3 as it began entering the western part of the Alexandria area. Mobile homes, warehouses, and homes on slabs were all heavily damaged or destroyed in the Ross Lane and Hwy 128 locations. A recreational baseball park was destroyed as well as a Chevron Gas station. The tornado then weakened to an EF2 as it moved further east into the Cloverleaf Blvd and Larkspur Drive residential areas. Trees were uprooted onto homes and carports with a few homes with significant roof structure damage noted.

The tornado continued to weaken to an EF1 as it move east tossing or turning over travel trailers at the Cenla RV Center. The tornado then moved across the Red River snapping the tops of trees at Highway 165 and Rainbow Drive. Finally, the tornado moved to Edgewood Drive where trees were snapped and home damage occurred as very tall pine trees were snapped or uprooted and fell onto several homes. The tornado then moved further east where it quickly weakened and dissipated. Max estimated winds in Rapides Parish was 158 MPH. Roughly 575 structures were damaged.

The wider storm

A cold front pushed across Louisiana with showers and storms ahead of the boundary. A couple storms produce tornadoes with one being long tracked.

Began near Hineston (31.1284, -92.8285).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

1 more tornado the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF2 Rapides Parish

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 869483. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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