10/22/09 REPORTS: LA

[Sam Shamburger]

I unexpectedly went chasing today after numerous supercells with decent to strong low level rotation spread inland from the Gulf of Mexico into southern Louisiana during the morning hours. Positioned myself just west of Jennings, Louisiana on Interstate 10 and watched one of the supercells spawn a large rain-wrapped tornado which crossed the interstate from south to north. As the tornado crossed the highway, it transitioned into a large barrel type funnel with multiple vorticies occasionally touching down.

After witnessing the tornado, I did storm surveys for my office (NWS Lake Charles) and found an EF0 damage path up to 1/2 mile wide south of I-10 with this tornado.

 

[Scott Overpeck]

Nice catch. Remember watching that cell out in the Gulf while we (HGX) backed you (LCH) up for a bit. Storm had 90kts inbound on the SRM at times when it moved in off the Gulf. Storm kept spinning quite impressively for such a small storm. Good stuff.

 

[Sam Shamburger]

Here is a brief video I took of the rain-wrapped multiple vortex tornado that crossed I-10 west of Jennings, LA. The view is looking to the north from the north side of the interstate. The tornado had just blown a tractor trailer rig sideways into the eastbound lanes and median of the interstate, shutting those lanes down and injuring the driver. It was pouring rain at the time, so unfortunately I had to keep wiping water off the camera lens.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT_kLRkTP6c


I found a total of 5 separate tornadoes that were produced by this one supercell, all of which were weak but had unusually long tracks for southern Louisiana. A webpage report I completed on this event can be found at the link below. Note that the two tornado tracks near Jennings and near Elton will soon be changed to minimal EF1 intensity based on further analysis, and that there were likely other tornadoes in the inaccessible marshes of Cameron Parish to the south of Lake Arthur.

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/lch/events/102209.php

 

[Sam Shamburger]

I'm a bit slow, but here's a brief video I shot of the large tornado crossing Interstate 10 west of Jennings, LA:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE1-1Xy2Uu0