NWS Confirms Tornado In Hendricks And Marion Counties

A weak tornado of EF1 intensity and winds estimated from 90 to 100 mph caused damage along an approximate two mile path in Plainfield and Indianapolis Tuesday afternoon June 24th.  The tornado touched down near Perry Road and US40 in Plainfield at approximately 232 PM EDT.  The first significant damage occurred at a vehicle auction facility with one building heavily damaged and over 200 cars impacted by flying debris. Minor straight-line wind tree damage was observed west of the auction facility near Township Line Road and Smith Road.  The tornado traveled northeast causing damage to nearly two dozen homes in Hendricks County with the most severe damage along County Road 200S near County Road 1050E.  At this location the tornado lofted a camping trailer into the air and tossed it approximately 175 feet to the east onto a house and also removed a substantial portion of that houses roof.  This damage was rated EF1 with winds estimated at 95 to 100 mph.

The tornado continued tracking northeast through the Bentwood subdivision in east Hendricks County and into the Cameron Meadows subdivision of Indianapolis. The most significant damage in Indianapolis was along Raceway Road near Blue Pine Drive where a couple homes had portions of their roofs removed by the tornado. This damage was rated EF1 with winds estimated near 97 mph.  The tornado lifted at approximately 240 PM EDT in this subdivision though intermittent straight-line wind damage to trees occurred from here to near Rockville Road and I-465 all the way to the town of Speedway.
Indianapolis officials estimated 75 to 100 homes received at least minor damage in Indianapolis. Also, including the automobiles damaged at the auto auction center, more than 200 vehicles sustained varying degrees of damage.

more here:

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=ind&storyid=103059&source=0

NWS Confirms Tornado In Marion County

NWS Indianapolis has confirmed a brief tornado touched down on Saturday evening in Indianapolis, just northwest of downtown.  This tornado occurred in association with the remnants of Hurricane Isaac.  The tornado was captured on a tower camera with the touchdown occurring near 16th Street and the White River.  No damage has been reported or observed, but it is likely that this tornado will be rated EF0, and the yearly statistics on the right reflect this assumption. 

June 11, 1998 Tornado Outbreak

On this date in 1998, ten tornadoes struck northern and central parts of the state.  The strongest tornado touched down in far eastern Marion county in the early evening and quickly intensified to F4 as it passed into Hancock county.  Fortunately, this tornado resulted in no fatalities and only 4 injuries.  Another strong tornado touched down in Howard county, doing significant damage in Greentown.  In all, 17 people were injured in this outbreak.

May 14, 1972 Indianapolis Area Tornado

Today marks the 40th anniversary of one of the most powerful tornadoes to strike the Indianapolis area since records began.  The tornado had a non-continuous damage path of 29 miles and first touched down on the east side of Indianapolis in the 9700 block of East Washington Street.  The tornado was seen by a number of people and pictures were taken showing another funnel cloud.  At the Drake Terrace Apartments, a second floor wall was blown down.  In the 1100 block of North German Church Road, three steel high tension towers were blown down.  Some of the worst damage occurred in the Heather Hills subdivision where ten houses were flattened.  In Marion county, about 70 homes were damaged or destroyed.  In Mount Comfort, clocks were stopped at 12:25 PM and a railroad car was tipped over.  Near Eden, roofs were damaged and trees were uprooted.  Northwest of Markleville, several mobile homes were severely damaged.  The last damage occurred at Mechanicsburg where a barn was unroofed.  Somewhat miraculously, nobody was killed but about 20 people were injured.

Several F3 tornadoes have struck Indianapolis since records began, but the 1972 tornado may be the only F4 that has occurred within the Indianapolis city limits.  Another tornado in 1998 began in eastern Marion county but apparently did not produce F4 damage until it reached Hancock county.


Sources:

Storm Data
Thomas P. Grazulis, Significant Tornadoes 1680-1991 (Environmental Films, 1993).

November 22, 1992 Tornado Outbreak

Today is the anniversary of the November 22, 1992 tornado outbreak.  This outbreak spawned 15 tornadoes in central Indiana and is the largest November tornado outbreak on record here.  Here is a writeup from the NWS in Indianapolis:

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ind/?n=nov22_1992tor

September 20, 2002 Tornadoes

Today marks the 9 year anniversary of the September 20, 2002 tornado outbreak.  When we think about local tornado climatology, we don't tend to think of September as being an active month.  The events of September 20, 2002 - and one tornado in particular - would turn climatology on its head.

The first of 6 tornadoes touched down in Posey county at 9:40 AM local time.  It was on the ground for less than a quarter mile and caused no significant damage.  The same thunderstorm would produce a stronger F2 tornado near Poseyville at 9:50 AM local time.  This tornado destroyed 10 mobile homes and 4 other buildings and had a path length just under 5 miles.

After a break, another tornado would form in northwestern Pike county and move into Knox and Daviess counties.  In Knox county, the tornado destroyed a few homes and damaged several others and peaked at F2 intensity.  A conservation officer in his vehicle was thrown an eighth of a mile by the tornado.  The tornado weakened to F0 as it moved into Daviess county, finally lifting after being on the ground for over 13 miles.

After another break in the action, the most notable tornado of the day touched down in Ellettsville at 12:59 PM local time and started producing F3 damage shortly thereafter.  After weakening and heading northeast into Morgan county, the tornado reintensified and produced more F3 damage in Martinsville.  The tornado remained at F2-F3 strength as it continued northeast into Johnson and Marion counties, producing additional F3 damage at Greenwood.  The tornado took a slight left turn and entered the city of Indianapolis around 1:45 PM, generally producing F1-F2 damage on its trek through the southern and eastern portions of the city.  The tornado exited Marion county just after 2 PM and continued northeast through several more counties, producing its final damage in Hartford City at 3:20 PM.  In all, about 130 people were injured by this tornado with damage in excess of $150 million.

2 other tornadoes occurred simultaneous to the long track tornado.  One of them damaged 10 single family homes and 30 mobile homes in Henry county and was rated F2.  The other tornado destroyed 2 barns and 2 mobile homes in Rush county and was rated F0.

This event probably would've been forgettable were it not for the long-tracked F3 tornado.  This tornado is interesting in several respects:

1) Its path length of 112 miles makes it one of the longest tracked tornadoes to ever hit the state (reanalysis of the April 3, 1974 Monticello tornado reduced the path length from 121 to 108 miles).  The tornado was on the ground for a total of 2 hours and 21 minutes, giving it an average forward speed of about 48 miles per hour.

2) The tornado passed through 9 counties, second most behind the April 3, 1974 Monticello tornado

3) It is the second longest tornado to hit the United States in the month of September since 1950

4) The tornado did not occur as part of a discrete supercell; rather, it formed along a QLCS/squall line

5) Although the tornado was rain-wrapped much of the time and passed through urbanized areas, no deaths occurred      


Here is a map of the tornado paths courtesy of NWS Indianapolis (note:  Posey county tracks not included)

September 12, 1988 Indianapolis Tornado

Still waiting for the May Storm Data to come in so the May tornado statistics can be finalized.  Hopefully this occurs sometime in the next couple weeks.

Anyway, since posts have been lacking as of late, I thought I'd mention that today is the anniversary of a F1 tornado that hit Indianapolis.  The tornado began on the north side of the city and moved northeast through Marion, Hamilton and Madison counties.  Roofs and automobiles were reportedly damaged along the path.  The tornado caused intermittent damage over a path length of about 35 miles and resulted in 1 injury. 

Top 10 Tornadoes Since 1950

#7 - September 20, 2002 Ellettsville to Hartford City Tornado



This is probably one of the lesser known tornadoes but that doesn't mean it wasn't impressive. It was on the ground for 2 hours and 21 minutes and traveled 112 miles and charged through the south and east side of Indianapolis.  Fortunately, there were no fatalities but over 100 people were injured. This tornado was rated F3 and caused over $100 million in damage.

A History Of July 4 Tornadoes

July 4 is a day that we celebrate by lighting off fireworks, but nature has been known to occasionally provide its own fireworks with tornadoes and other forms of severe weather here.  I was curious to find out just how common Independence Day tornadoes have been over the years.  Although I browsed tornado records back to the 1800's, I could not find any July 4 tornadoes before 1957.  This seems rather improbable and is likely due to poor documentation in earlier years, but I can only post what I know.  I found a total of 7 tornadoes and they are listed and mapped below.  In one instance there was a discrepancy with location which I have noted.

May 18, 1927 Indianapolis Tornado

A powerful tornado moved through the heart of Indianapolis 84 years ago today.  This tornado took the lives of 2 people and injured up to 200 others.  Although he rated it F3, Tom Grazulis notes that this tornado may have been F4.

 
Source:

Thomas P. Grazulis, Significant Tornadoes 1680-1991 (Environmental Films, 1993).

Tornadoes Per 100 Square Miles Per County, 1950-2010

I used the NCDC Storm Events database and Severeplot 3.0 to construct this map. Since each county varies in size, we have to try to level the playing field.  To that end, I did some calculations to find the number of tornadoes per 100 square miles per county from 1950-2010.  Here is what I found:

Not surprisingly, population bias is pretty noticeable.  It's not a perfect relationship but there is a general tendency for higher populated counties to report more tornadoes which makes sense.  More people=greater chance of someone seeing it.

Here are the top 5 counties in terms of tornadoes per 100 square miles:

Marion - 10.35
Tippecanoe - 8.40
Vanderburgh - 7.67
Shelby - 7.03
Elkhart - 6.90


Here are counties ranked by population. Notice that 4 of the above listed counties appear in the top 8 (out of 92) in terms of population. Curiously, Shelby county ranks much farther down on this list.

1. Marion
2. Lake
3. Allen
4. Hamilton
5. St. Joseph
6. Elkhart
7. Vanderburgh
8. Tippecanoe
.
.
.
32. Shelby