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EF0 tornado in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana

Tornado May 18, 2021 · Jefferson Parish, Louisiana

EF0

Rating

0.3 mi

Path length

50 yd

Path width

$100K

Damage as recorded

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 50 yards (0.03 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 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 touched down just north of the river and south of the airport in Kenner and took the roof off a large building. It was noted the roof material was severely corroded and rusted. The tornado moved north and convergence in downed trees was seen just to the east of a cemetery. The tornado continued to track north- northeast, with trees down near the railroad tracks and power lines down just north of the tracks, where it looks like the tornado lifted.

The wider storm

In the overnight hours on May 17th into the early morning on May 18th, a cluster of slow moving severe thunderstorms associated with a weak mid-level disturbance drifted east across southeastern Louisiana. Ample overnight instability and weak steering flow resulted in damaging wind gusts, flash flooding and a few isolated weak tornadoes.

Began near Kenner (29.9750, -90.2596).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF0 St. Tammany Parish

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 960552. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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