Thankfully, the weather during Super Bowl week in New Orleans typically brings a pleasant spring-like warmth. However, on February 7, 2017 – exactly eight years ago – southeastern Louisiana experienced the wrath of six tornadoes as part of a series of severe thunderstorms that swept across the Southern states stretching from Kentucky to northern Florida. One particularly strong tornado carved a destructive 10-mile path through the eastern side of New Orleans shortly before noon.
Reports from the National Weather Service revealed that a total of 638 homes and at least 40 businesses suffered varying degrees of damage, with even the renowned NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility not being spared. The impact was severe, with entire second floors of two-story houses being leveled and massive steel transmission poles being violently bent to the ground. The ferocity of the destruction warranted an EF3 rating, making it the sole tornado to achieve such a classification or higher in Orleans Parish in the reliable historical records dating back to 1950. Remarkably, this tornado is among only twenty-four twisters recorded in the parish within the extensive NOAA database spanning 75 years.
While the tornado caused injuries to 33 individuals, the fortunate news was that there were no reported fatalities. Jonathan Erdman, a seasoned meteorologist at weather.com with a career spanning back to 1996, has a particular interest in discussing extreme and peculiar weather phenomena. You can connect with him on Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter), and Facebook to delve deeper into the fascinating realm of weather patterns and events.
