Indiana, 2001

Tornadoes and Hail in Indiana, May 26, 2001

May 26, 2001 · NWS IWX · 13 events in 8 counties and zones

Synoptic and mesoscale conditions and event summary for Saturday May 26th, 2001A low topped supercell thunderstorm developed in Cass county Indiana, and moved northeast through the Fort Wayne metropolitan area and into northwest Ohio. This thunderstorm produced several tornadoes and numerous funnel clouds.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.

  • Tornadoes
  • Tropical storms and surge
  • Floods
  • Wind
  • Hail
  • Winter weather
  • Heat and drought
  • Cold
  • Fire, smoke and dust
  • Marine and coastal
  • Other

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths
0
Injuries
3
Property damage
$6.5 million
Crop damage
None recorded
Events
13

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What happened

The episode as NWS IWX wrote it up.

Synoptic and mesoscale conditions and event summary for Saturday May 26th, 2001A low topped supercell thunderstorm developed in Cass county Indiana, and moved northeast through the Fort Wayne metropolitan area and into northwest Ohio. This thunderstorm produced several tornadoes and numerous funnel clouds. The wind field was favorable for rotating storms on with strong veering in the KIWX Wind Profile. This was on the south side of a unseasonably cold closed upper low in the mid and upper levels. Surface temperatures in the lower 50s, and scattered showers were against strong thunderstorm development. However sunshine over central Indiana allowed enough heating for a thunderstorm to develop and quickly began rotating.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Northern Indiana wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at May 26, 3:00 PM EST, 1 hour 3 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, May 26, 3:00 PM EST, 1 hour 3 minutes before
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NORTHERN INDIANA
300 PM EST SAT MAY 26 2001

PRIMARY FCST CONCERN IS TSRA CHC FOR EARLY TONIGHT AND SVR
POTENTIAL.

LATEST WV IMAGERY INDICATED 5H LOW CNTR OVR W CNTRL IL...WITH ONE
SHORTWAVE PIVOTING INTO NRN IN AND A SECOND SHORTWAVE EXTENDING TO
SRN IL. SFC LOW PRES CNTR WAS NEAR KPIA...WITH A SFC TROF EXTENDING
SE TO N CNTRL KY. STRONG MOISTURE CONVERGENCE AND LI VALUES TO MINUS
4 WERE ALG TROF AXIS. AREA OF STRATIFORM RAIN IN ASSOCIATION WITH
LEAD SHORTWAVE WAS OVR NRN IN AND LWR MI...WITH CONVECTION SCT OVR
IL AND CNTRL AND SRN IN IN ASSOCIATION WITH SFC TROF AND
SECOND SHORTWAVE.

IN THE MID LVLS...MODELS PIVOT 5H LOW OVR RGN TONIGHT...THEN LIFT IT
SLOWLY NEWRD NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS.  ETA AND NGM HAVE TRENDED FARTHER
NE WITH THIS FEATURE...WHILE AVN HAS BEEN FAIRLY CONSISTENT AND ITS
SOMEWHAT SLOWER SOLUTION IS PREFERRED.  ETA AND AVN IN DECENT
AGREEMENT WITH SHIFTING SFC LOW EWRD INTO NW IN THIS EVENING...THOUGH
SFC LOW IS FARTHER S AT PRESENT THEN PROGGED.  MODELS THEN LIFT LOW
NEWRD OVR NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS. BASED ON ABOVE...LAST ROUND OF
WIDESPREAD CONVECTION SHOULD OCCUR TONIGHT.  VWP AND WLCI3 PROFILER
INDICATE DECENT MID LVL WND FIELD WITH 35 TO 40 KNOTS FM 2K FT
THROUGH MID LVLS.  CLOUD COVER AND RAIN HAVE ENABLED AIRMASS TO RMN
FAIRLY STABLE THUS FAR...BUT VIS IMAGERY INDICATING SOME BREAKS TO
THE S AND SW.  IF AIRMASS CAN DESTABILIZE LATE AFT...A FEW SEVERE
STORMS COULD BE POSSIBLE GIVEN WND FIELD AND LOW WEB BULB ZERO
HEIGHTS.  A WK MID LVL DISTURBANCE SCRAPING SRN SXNS OF CWFA ON
SUN COULD TRIGGER A FEW SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS GIVEN COLD AIR
ALOFT AND LEFT OVR MOISTURE...BUT CONVECTION SHOULD BE SCT IN
NATURE...SO WL KEEP POPS IN 30 TO 40 PERCENT RANGE.  WL HOLD ON TO
LOW CHC POPS FOR EARLY SUN NIGHT...THEN WL OPT FOR DRY MEMORIAL DAY.

AS FOR TEMPS...FWC AND MAV NUMBERS IN GOOD AGREEMENT AND WL STAY
CLOSE.  FWC HIGHS HAVE BEEN MUCH TOO WARM OF LATE...BUT WL ONLY
TRIM SLIGHTLY NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS GIVEN INCREASING AMOUNTS OF
SUNSHINE.

AS FOR THE EXTD...MRF AND ECMWF BOTH SWING 5H TROF ACRS RGN
ON THU AND FRI...SO WL INTRODUCE CHC POPS.

.IWX...NONE.

BARJENBRUCH

The radar

The Northern Indiana radar (KIWX), 87 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 21:02 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

6 thunderstorm wind, 5 tornado, 2 hail. Local standard time, as filed.

Hail, Cass

When
May 26, 4:03 PM EST
Where
Cass County, Logansport
Measured
0.75 in hail
Reported by
EMERGENCY MANAGER
Coordinates
40.750, -86.350

Thunderstorm Wind, Miami

When
May 26, 4:22 PM EST
Where
Miami County, Peru
Reported by
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates
40.750, -86.067

Power lines down in county.

Hail, Wabash

When
May 26, 4:30 PM EST
Where
Wabash County, Roann
Measured
1 in hail
Reported by
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates
40.917, -85.917

Thunderstorm Wind, Miami

When
May 26, 4:30 PM EST
Where
Miami County, Peru
Reported by
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates
40.750, -86.067

Power lines down in county.

Thunderstorm Wind, Marshall

When
May 26, 4:30 PM EST
Where
Marshall County, Plymouth
Property damage
$4,000
Reported by
EMERGENCY MANAGER
Coordinates
41.350, -86.317

Large tree down on roof of house.

Thunderstorm Wind, Wabash

When
May 26, 4:39 PM EST
Where
Wabash County, 3 mi NE of Wabash
Property damage
$100
Reported by
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates
40.833, -85.783

Twelve inch diameter trees snapped off 12 feet above ground. Shed damaged and moved.

Thunderstorm Wind, Starke

When
May 26, 4:42 PM EST
Where
Starke County, 4 mi ESE of Knox
Reported by
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates
41.283, -86.567

Tree down across road.

Tornado, Wabash

When
May 26, 5:00 PM EST to 5:01 PM EST
Where
Wabash County, Wabash
Rating
F0
Path length
0.1 mi
Path width
20 yd
Property damage
$3,000
Reported by
NWS STORM SURVEY
Coordinates
40.800, -85.817

F0 tornado damaged ne corner of garage and nearby shed.

Tornado, Huntington

When
May 26, 5:00 PM EST
Where
Huntington County, 5 mi N of Huntington
Rating
F0
Path length
0.1 mi
Path width
10 yd
Reported by
EMERGENCY MANAGER
Coordinates
40.950, -85.483

Brief touchdown in field. No damage

Thunderstorm Wind, Huntington

When
May 26, 5:10 PM EST
Where
Huntington County, 3 mi NE of Roanoke
Property damage
$18,000
Reported by
EMERGENCY MANAGER
Coordinates
41.000, -85.333

3 telephone poles down, large tree down, roof damage.

Tornado, Allen

When
May 26, 5:35 PM EST
Where
Allen County, 3 mi WSW of Ft Wayne
Rating
F0
Path length
0.1 mi
Path width
10 yd
Property damage
$2,000
Reported by
NWS EMPLOYEE(OFF DUTY)
Coordinates
41.050, -85.183

Brief touchdown knocked down large trees and power lines. Some roof damage.

Tornado, Allen

When
May 26, 5:45 PM EST to 5:48 PM EST
Where
Allen County, Ft Wayne
Rating
F2
Path length
3 mi
Path width
300 yd
Injuries
3 direct, 0 indirect
Property damage
$6.5 million
Reported by
NWS STORM SURVEY
Coordinates
41.067, -85.133

Tornado touched down as as F1 at the Northcrest shopping mall on the northwest sideof Fort Wayne. Damaged to mall and surrounding businesses. Cars flipped over in parking lot withone person injured. Tornado then briefly lifted and touched down one half mile to the northeastas an F2. Extensive damage to the Papermill subdivision with F2 damage to two homes, anoffice complex, a retirement home, and a steeple torn off a church. One injury at the retirement home and one in the subdivision. Tornado proceeded northeast with F0-F1 damage to the Concordia Seminary and adjacent structures before the tornado lifted on the northeast side of the Seminary grounds.

Tornado, De Kalb

When
May 26, 6:20 PM EST
Where
De Kalb County, 1 mi N of St Joe
Rating
F0
Path length
0.1 mi
Path width
10 yd
Reported by
FIRE DEPT/RESCUE SQUAD
Coordinates
41.333, -84.900

Brief touchdown near CR 56 and CR 59. No damage.

What these are

Hail
Hail three-quarters of an inch or larger, or smaller hail that caused damage, filed with the largest stone measured.
Thunderstorm Wind
Winds from a thunderstorm of 50 knots (58 mph) or more, or lower winds that caused damage or casualties. Measured gusts are marked MG, estimated EG.
Tornado
A violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and extending from a thunderstorm, filed with its path, width and Fujita or Enhanced Fujita rating from the damage survey.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Indiana in 2001Every state in 2001This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Indiana, 2001Warnings in Indiana, May 2001

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5242996, 5242997, 5242998, 5242999, 5243008, 5243000, 5243001, 5243002, 5243003, 5243004, 5243005, 5243006, 5243007.