Ice, Freeze and Tree Failure in Northwest Louisiana: The Published Record

Last reviewed 2026-07-25. Journalists, researchers, and community groups are welcome to cite any figure on this page with attribution and a link.

Every figure on this page was published by somebody else, and each source is listed at the bottom with a link to the page that actually carries the number. The scope is deliberately narrow: what the public record says about ice, freeze and tree failure in Caddo and Bossier Parishes, which species the state's extension service already rates as weak, what Shreveport's own code requires around a right-of-way tree, and what Louisiana requires of anyone paid to cut one. Nothing here is an estimate and nothing here is a survey. Where a figure could not be traced to a live public document, it was left off.

Northwest Louisiana gets folded into hurricane coverage because it is in Louisiana. The record does not support that framing. The events that put the largest tree-damage numbers into Shreveport's climate profile arrived as freezing rain in late December, not as a named storm off the Gulf, and the worst of them collapsed steel transmission towers and blocked streets on both sides of the Red River at once. That is what the sources below describe, and it changes what a homeowner here should be watching for and in which season.

The documented ice, freeze and wind events

Two December ice storms dominate the local record, and both are recorded in the Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program's Shreveport climate profile. The December 2000 event is the benchmark: it is the one with a dollar figure, a fatality count, a transmission tower count and a street count attached. The December 1998 storm two years earlier put more customers in the dark. Between them they explain why utility crews and tree crews in this area organize their winters the way they do, and why an ice forecast here is treated more seriously than a wind forecast of the same lead time.

Which species the extension service already rates as weak

The LSU AgCenter published wind-resistance rankings drawn from University of Florida research into which trees survive storms. They are wind ratings rather than ice ratings, and the article is explicit about that, but the underlying failure mechanisms are the same: weak wood, poor decay resistance and bad branch attachments. The table below reproduces the species the AgCenter names, in the categories it assigns them. The one entry that carries a timeline rather than a rating is water oak, and it is the most common large shade tree in Shreveport's older neighborhoods.

The cold side of the record

Louisiana's all-time record low was not set on the coast. NOAA's Louisiana state climate summary puts it at sixteen degrees below zero at Minden, in Webster Parish about twenty-eight miles east of Shreveport, on February 13, 1899. The modern instrument record at Shreveport Regional Airport, which begins in 1939, bottoms out at one degree on February 16, 2021, according to the Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program's profile of the city. The National Weather Service noted that reading broke the previous daily record by nineteen degrees.

Routine cold matters more than records for trees, because it sets how often freezing rain is even possible. The SCIPP profile states that on average the temperature in Shreveport dips below freezing on thirty days each year. NOAA's state summary adds the longer trend, noting that the number of freezing days varied widely across the twentieth century and has generally run below average from 1990 onward. Fewer freezing days does not mean fewer ice storms; it means the ones that arrive land on canopies that have had more growing season and less hardening than the ones their grandparents carried.

What Shreveport's code actually says about the tree at the curb

Article 10 of the City of Shreveport's Unified Development Code covers landscape and tree preservation, and section 10.5 governs tree planting, maintenance and removal on street rights-of-way and other public grounds. It is short, it is specific, and most homeowners have never read it. The provisions below are quoted or closely paraphrased from that section and from section 10.6 on preservation credits. None of it governs a tree standing entirely on private residential property, which is the distinction that trips people up.

Separately, Louisiana Civil Code article 688 handles the neighbor question and applies statewide. It gives a landowner the right to demand that branches or roots of a neighbor's trees, bushes or plants extending over or into the property be trimmed at the neighbor's expense, and removes that right where the roots or branches do not interfere with the enjoyment of the property. It is a short article with a long history of being cited at fence lines.

What Louisiana requires of anyone paid to cut a tree

The Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry licenses this trade, and it publishes two categories. An arborist license covers making recommendations or executing tree removal, pruning, trimming, cabling, fertilization and cavity work. A utility arborist license covers recommending and executing removal of trees or portions of trees along utility rights of way. They are separate credentials for separate work, which is worth knowing when the job in question is under a conductor rather than over a driveway.

The mechanics are published too. LDAF sets the exam at a passing score of seventy percent or higher, charges a $150 exam fee, and requires the exam to be completed within sixty days of submitting an application. The license fee is $125 per year, all licenses expire January 31 each year, and renewal requires attending a continuing education seminar annually. Applicants must show proof of current and sufficient general liability and workers compensation insurance where applicable, and LDAF requires arborists to enter into a written contract with property owners. A verification call before hiring is a five-minute exercise.

Sources & Methodology

Every figure above was taken from the primary sources below (accessed 2026-07-25). Where a number is derived (arithmetic on published figures) or covers a broader period or area, the text says so.

1. Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program - Shreveport, Louisiana climate profile — December 1998 and December 2000 ice storm damage, outage counts, transmission towers, blocked streets, 1997 downburst, days below freezing, 2021 airport low
2. LSU AgCenter - Working in the Landscape: Water Oak Warning — water oak weak wood, poor decay resistance, and the note that trunks often rot by age 50
3. LSU AgCenter - Choosing Storm-Tolerant Trees — wind-resistance categories by species and the Bradford pear included-bark explanation
4. City of Shreveport Unified Development Code, Article 10 - Landscape and Tree Preservation — right-of-way removal approval, the 30-inch caliper permit, the topping prohibition, storm exemption, utility provisions, 8-inch preservation credit
5. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information - Louisiana State Climate Summary 2022 — state record low of minus 16 degrees at Minden, the February 2021 cold wave and icing, freezing-day trend
6. National Weather Service Shreveport - December 25-26, 2000 ice storm — storm dates, ice up to an inch in southwest Arkansas, the roughly 20-mile-wide icing band
7. National Weather Service Shreveport - February 2021 Arctic Outbreak — 1 degree at Shreveport breaking the daily record by 19 degrees, ice accumulation totals, duration below freezing
8. Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry - Arborists — arborist and utility arborist license scope, 70 percent exam score, $150 exam fee, $125 annual fee, January 31 expiration, written contract requirement
9. Louisiana Civil Code Article 688 - Branches or roots of trees on neighboring property — the landowner's right to demand trimming of encroaching branches and roots at the neighbor's expense
10. City of Shreveport - Bulky Item Pickup — one pile per appointment, 15 by 6 by 6 foot maximum, 8-inch and 6-foot limb limits, stumps and roots excluded, 5-foot clearance rule
11. City of Bossier City - Yard Waste — 6-foot limb length, 8-inch diameter, 65-pound item limit, 15 by 4 foot stack maximum, 10-bag cap
12. Caddo Parish Parks and Recreation - Walter B. Jacobs Memorial Nature Park — 160 acres three miles west of Blanchard, pine-oak-hickory forest, five miles of trails