Tornadoes · United States · Indiana · 1974

F1 tornado, Hamilton County, Indiana, June 10, 1974

This F1 tornado ran 1.5 miles across Hamilton County on June 10, 1974, touching down at 9:55 PM EST and reaching 150 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5,000 to $50,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mphthis tornado

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mph

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. F3158 to 206 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5261 to 318 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
F1
Date
June 10, 1974
Touchdown
9:55 PM EST (02:55 UTC)
Path length
1.5 miles (2.4 km)
Path width
150 yards (137 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
County
Hamilton County
Touchdown point
39.970, -86.100
Record number
597

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Dayton/James M C, OH (KDAY), 00:00Z

2.9 hours before the tornado, 162 km from the path. June 11, 1974.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dayton/James M C, OH at 00:00Z on 1974-06-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 26 joules per kilogram, CIN -3, lifted condensation level 692 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Dayton/James M C, OH at 00:00Z on 1974-06-11The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 7 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 39 knots.1939587897Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
26 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-3 J/kg
Surface CAPE
30 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
692 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
39 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
7 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
38 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Dayton/James M C, OH (KDAY), 12:00Z

9.1 hours after it, 162 km from the path. June 11, 1974.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dayton/James M C, OH at 12:00Z on 1974-06-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 12 joules per kilogram, CIN -34, lifted condensation level 759 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Dayton/James M C, OH at 12:00Z on 1974-06-11The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 39 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 23 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
12 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-34 J/kg
Surface CAPE
10 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
759 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
39 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
79 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Indianapolis (IND), 34 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
01:00 UTC6756270° 7 kt1011.9
02:00 UTC6555240° 7 kt1012.5
03:00 UTC6455240° 7 kt1013.5
04:00 UTC6255240° 8 kt1013.5

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1974 tornado in IndianaEvery tornado in Indiana since 1950Warnings in force in Indiana nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 10, 1974

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 102:01 AM EDTF2Roscommon, MI0.350$500 to $5,000
June 104:45 PM EDTF1Westmoreland, PA0.4133under $50
June 104:45 PM EDTF0Hillsborough, FL0.110$500 to $5,000
June 105:30 PM CDTF0Brown, SD15.0100
June 109:15 PM CDTF2Pratt, KS1.050$5,000 to $50,000

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.