Flooding Possible in the Southwest U.S.; Coastal Storm to Impact the East

Heavy to excessive rainfall is expected today into Wednesday over New Mexico into far west Texas. Flash flooding and debris flows in wildfire burn areas will be possible. A strong coastal storm will develop off the Mid-Atlantic coast Wednesday, intensifying toward southern New England this weekend. Significant coastal flooding, strong rip currents, and beach erosion from high surf expected. Read More >

Rayne Tornado

Rayne Tornado Damage

MARCH 5, 2011 TORNADOES

Rayne Tornado Damage

Overview

A strong shortwave trough pushed east out of the Rockies and across the southern plains late Friday, March 4th into Saturday, March 5th. Southerly winds over the course of the previous 48 hours allowed for abundant moisture to be pushed into the region. Considerable wind shear, resulting from a strong upper level jet stream over the area, allowed for a few of the developing thunderstorms to begin rotating. Widespread thunderstorms developed across southwest Louisiana early on March 5th and moved eastward through the morning.

One supercell thunderstorm produced four tornado touchdowns across Jefferson Davis and Acadia parishes, including an EF2 tornado that ripped through the small town of Rayne, LA. This tornado damaged 683 homes and numerous other buildings, resulting in 1 fatality and 12 injuries. Damage estimates from this tornado are in the tens of millions of dollars, making this one of the most damaging tornadoes ever in southwest Louisiana. The storms continued to push eastward into southeast Louisiana where they produced four additional tornadoes.

Local Storm Reports

Experimental Graphical Local Storm Reports for March 5, 2011
SPC Storm Reports for March 5, 2011
List of all Local Storm Reports for March 5, 2011
March 5, 2011 Google Earth KML data file