EF1 Tornado — Madison, Louisiana

2021-05-04 · near Coleman, Madison, Louisiana

Event narrative

This tornado developed southeast of Tallulah and south of I-20 over open fields and quickly reached EF-1 intensity as it overturned an irrigation pivot south of LA Highway 602. It continued east southeastward snapping several tree limbs and small trees and damaging multiple outbuildings. Two utility poles were snapped near the base along Hodge Rd, and two additional irrigation pivots were overturned east of this location. Trees were snapped along the Mississippi River levee, then the tornado continued across the river into Mississippi. The tornado crossed US 61 near Magnolia Rd and Wilbert Ln, producing mainly tree limb damage with a few trees uprooted or snapped and a carport damaged, then continued eastward across the Dana Rd area. Intensity increased somewhat as the tornado crossed Fisher Ferry Rd and moved along Nailor Rd, with more concentrated tree damage in this area and structural and vehicle damage primarily associated with falling trees and tree limbs. Before reaching Halls Ferry Rd, the tornado began to weaken with damage mainly limited to large tree branches down and uprooted or snapped trees becoming more sporadic. It lifted before reaching Halls Ferry Rd, but strong non-tornadic winds continued east of this location with additional tree damage occurring over a large area. Maximum estimated winds for Madison Parish were 100 miles per hour and the overall maximum estimated winds were 105 miles per hour. The tornado path length was 17.73 miles. The tornado was a maximum of 600 yards wide, which occurred in Warren County.

Wider weather episode

An outbreak of severe thunderstorms occurred on May 4th. The main round of storms occurred during the afternoon in the form of an intense line of storms. Widespread wind damage occurred resulting in numerous downed trees, power lines and infrastructure damage. Two tornadoes also occurred within the line of storms.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (32.3222, -91.1150)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 959328. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.