Tornadoes · United States · Indiana

1989 tornadoes in Indiana

25 tornadoes touched down in Indiana in 1989, 10 percent above the average of the record for the state. None of them killed anybody.

1988 1990 The whole country in 1989

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.

F040 to 72 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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.

Every tornado in Indiana in 1989

January 7 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
January 7	6:00 PM EST	F0	Knox	0.1	30			$500 to $5,000
January 7	8:15 PM EST	F1	Decatur	4.5	50			$5,000 to $50,000

April 3 4 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries	Damage
April 3	4:38 PM CDT	F1	Gibson	0.6	73		$50,000 to $500,000
April 3	4:50 PM CDT	F3	Gibson	3.1	100	8	$5 million to $50 million
April 3	5:25 PM EST	F1	Pike	0.7	50		$5,000 to $50,000
April 3	6:25 PM EST	F1	Dubois	0.7	50		$50,000 to $500,000

April 28 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
April 28	8:47 PM EST	F0	Knox	0.5	50
April 28	9:05 PM EST	F0	Knox	0.5	50

May 19 5 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
May 19	6:04 PM EST	F1	Owen	0.5	30	$5,000 to $50,000
May 19	6:45 PM CDT	F1	Posey	1.0	30	$5,000 to $50,000
May 19	7:05 PM CDT	F1	Vanderburgh	3.5	40	$50,000 to $500,000
May 19	7:34 PM CDT	F1	Spencer	1.0	30	$50 to $500
May 19	7:35 PM CDT	F1	Gibson	0.5	30	$50 to $500

May 25 4 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
May 25	5:30 PM EST	F1	Putnam	5.0	300	$50,000 to $500,000
May 25	5:40 PM EST	F0	Putnam	4.0	100
May 25	6:05 PM EST	F0	Hendricks	0.2	50
May 25	9:30 PM CDT	F1	Adams to OH	5.0	50	$50,000 to $500,000

June 3 4 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries	Damage
June 3	8:30 AM EST	F0	Fulton	0.2	30	3	$5,000 to $50,000
June 3	8:48 AM EST	F0	Saint Joseph	4.0	20		$50,000 to $500,000
June 3	4:50 PM EST	F1	Delaware	0.5	30		$50,000 to $500,000
June 3	5:35 PM EST	F0	Randolph	0.3	20		$500 to $5,000

July 11 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 11	2:25 PM EST	F0	Shelby	0.5	23			$5,000 to $50,000

July 23 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 23	2:51 PM EST	F0	Switzerland	2.5	10

August 5 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
August 5	1:45 AM CDT	F0	LaPorte	0.2	10

September 1 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
September 1	2:35 AM EST	F2	Fulton	1.5	500		3	$500,000 to $5 million

Crossed into Indiana

Tornadoes that touched down in a neighboring state and ran into Indiana. They are counted under the state they began in.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
January 7	5:24 PM CST	F4	Wabash, IL to IN	19.0	200		55	$5 million to $50 million

Nearby

Every tornado in Indiana since 1950 Warnings in force in Indiana The live radar over Indiana

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.