Tornadoes · United States · Indiana · 1981

F0 tornado, Marshall County, Indiana, October 17, 1981

This F0 tornado ran 2.0 miles across Marshall County on October 17, 1981, touching down at 11:50 PM EST and reaching 150 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did under $50 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 mphthis tornado

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

  2. F173 to 112 mph

    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
F0
Date
October 17, 1981
Touchdown
11:50 PM EST (04:50 UTC)
Path length
2.0 miles (3.2 km)
Path width
150 yards (137 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
under $50
County
Marshall County
Touchdown point
41.300, -86.120
Record number
770

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

4.8 hours before the tornado, 225 km from the path. October 18, 1981.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dayton/James M C, OH at 00:00Z on 1981-10-18Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -10685, lifted condensation level 1945 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 1981-10-18The 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 275 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 44 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-10685 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1945 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
44 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
275 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
369 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

7.2 hours after it, 225 km from the path. October 18, 1981.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dayton/James M C, OH at 12:00Z on 1981-10-18Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -14283, lifted condensation level 900 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 1981-10-18The 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 -180 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 83 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-14283 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
900 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
83 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-180 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-105 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1981 tornado in IndianaEvery tornado in Indiana since 1950Warnings in force in Indiana nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of October 17, 1981

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
October 174:45 AM CDTF1Jefferson, OK0.1102
October 177:05 PM CDTF2Saline, AR0.5100$5,000 to $50,000
October 178:00 PM CDTF2Hardeman, TN1.533$5,000 to $50,000
October 179:40 PM CDTF1Lake, IN0.110$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.