Damaging tornado hits uptown New Orleans, Louisiana

ByTeo Blašković
new-orleans-louisiana-tornado-may-12-2021

Image credit: NOAA/GOES-16. Acquired at 07:10 UTC on May 12, 2021

A damaging tornado swept through uptown New Orleans, Louisiana early Wednesday morning (LT), May 12, 2021, as severe thunderstorms rolled over the area. This was the only tornado in the U.S. on May 11, the first to hit New Orleans since July 2019 and the 10th since 2000.

The twister toppled trees and power poles in several neighborhoods, knocking out power to as many as 10 000 people.

Several homes and numerous cars were damaged.

According to a preliminary damage survey, this was an EF-0 tornado with estimated peak winds of 138 km/h (85 mph), a path length of 8.5 km (5.26 miles), and a maximum width of 115 m (125 yards).

It touched down somewhere between Claiborne and Carrollton and was on the ground for 7 minutes, from 02:05 to 02:12 CDT (07:05 to 07:12 UTC).

Teo Blašković founded The Watchers in 2011 and edited it until 2026, covering seismic and volcanic activity, extreme weather, space weather and near-Earth objects. Articles on this page are his archive.

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