NWS Confirms Tornado In Warrick County

Well, the post below about leap day tornadoes is no longer valid as we now have our first confirmed leap day tornado on record.  The NWS in Paducah has confirmed that an EF1 tornado struck Newburgh early this morning.  As always, any information on possible additional tornadoes will be posted here.



PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PADUCAH KY
446 PM CST WED FEB 29 2012

   
..DAMAGE SURVEY RESULTS FOR NEWBURGH INDIANA
  

THE FOLLOWING IS THE PRELIMINARY DAMAGE ASSESSMENT FOR
NEWBURGH.

* EVENT TYPE.........EF1 TORNADO

* EVENT DATE.........TUESDAY FEBRUARY 28 2012

* EVENT TIME.........6:03AM-6:06AM

* EVENT LOCATION.....OFF OF THE OHIO RIVER INTO NEWBURGH AT THE
   INTERSECTION OF STATE AND WATER AND ENDING IN OAK MOT CT.

* PEAK WIND..........90 MPH

* AVG. PATH WIDTH....100 YARDS

* PATH LENGTH........2 MILES

* INJURIES...........NONE

* FATALITIES.........NONE

* DAMAGE DETAIL......1 GARAGE LEVELED, DOZENS OF TREES UPROOTED,
   15-20 HOMES WITH PARTIAL ROOF DAMAGE, 2 HOMES WITH ROOFS
   COMPLETELY REMOVED, 2 BUSINESSES WITH PARTIAL ROOF DAMAGE, 1
BUSINESS WITH BRICK DAMAGE ON THE SECOND FLOOR, APPROX 12 PHONE
   POLES BLOWN OVER.

* SURVEYORS.......KELLY HOOPER AND SHANE LUECKE  

Leap Day Tornadoes

Today is February 29, or leap day, a day that usually comes around once every 4 years (except in years that are divisible by 100 but not 400, if that makes sense).  I checked the records to see if we've had any leap day tornadoes over the years.  I could not find any tornadoes on leap day but there are some that occurred close to that day.  The closest event occurred on February 27, 1876 when at least 3 tornadoes struck southern Indiana and again on February 27, 1948 when an F2 tornado struck Morgan county.  In the post-1950 era, the tornadoes closest to leap day happened on Feburary 25, 1956 when an outbreak of tornadoes occurred in central and southern portions of the state.

February 22, 1971 Greensburg Tornado

On this date in 1971, a tornado struck the Greensburg area of Jennings county.  It had an intermittent path length of approximately 10 miles.  Damage included an overturned airplane at the Greensburg Airport.

Violent Tornadoes 1875-2011

This post expands a previous post which can be viewed here. 

I have added the pre-1900 F4/F5 tornadoes as rated by Tom Grazulis.  New list and map are below.

The Uniqueness Of Northern Indiana

As the lake effect snow event in northern Indiana begins to wind down (totals of 10+" have been reported), it got me thinking about how much variety of weather that area of the state experiences.  Granted, the entire state experiences quite a variety of weather conditions throughout the year, but the lake effect snowbelt of northern Indiana takes it up a notch.

The first map above shows all tornadoes from 1950-2010 and the second map shows all F2 or greater tornadoes for the same time period.  I also threw in all 2"+ hail and 75+ mph wind reports, in green and blue respectively.  As you can see, there is a relatively high concentration of reports in the Indiana snowbelt.  Some areas downwind of Lake Erie have also experienced a decent amount of activity with other snowbelt regions well behind.  Population bias could be a factor in these results but it is my belief that the actual climate difference (northern Indiana is closest to tornado alley) is an overriding factor.

Other snowbelt regions certainly receive more snow than Indiana, but in terms of balance between snow and severe weather, there are few areas in the country and possibly the entire world that are on the level with northern Indiana.

February Tornadoes By F/EF Scale Rating

1950-2010

February Tornadoes Per County Since 1950