Tornadoes · United States · Indiana · 1994

F1 tornado, Jay County, Indiana, June 23, 1994

This F1 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Jay County on June 23, 1994, touching down at 1:55 PM EST and reaching 110 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 to $500,000 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 23, 1994
Touchdown
1:55 PM EST (18:55 UTC)
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
110 yards (101 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
County
Jay County
Touchdown point
40.450, -84.980
Record number
579

What the Weather Service recorded

The tornado touched down one tenth of a mile west of County Road 149 on County Road 150. The tornado moved northeast destroying a pole barn. It took the roof off a second barn and damaged the adjacent house. Power lines and trees were also blown down. Carroll County,23,1500EST,,,0,0,0,0,Thunderstorm Winds Trees were downed near Deer Creek.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:23 UTC20:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningIWX
20:22 UTC20:45 UTCTornado WarningIWX

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:07 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

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), 12:00Z

6.9 hours before the tornado, 90 km from the path. June 23, 1994.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dayton/James M C, OH at 12:00Z on 1994-06-23Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 91 joules per kilogram, CIN -77, lifted condensation level 1259 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 1994-06-23The 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 82 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 28 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
91 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-77 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1259 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
82 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
92 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.4
0-3 km lapse rate
4.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

5.1 hours after it, 90 km from the path. June 24, 1994.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dayton/James M C, OH at 00:00Z on 1994-06-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 818 joules per kilogram, CIN -43, lifted condensation level 1213 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 1994-06-24The 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 86 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 21 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
818 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-43 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2475 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1213 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
86 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
166 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.3
Supercell composite
4.5
0-3 km lapse rate
6.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Muncie (MIE), 42 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
17:00 UTC81.8674.84160° 11 kt1008.1DZ
18:00 UTC8576150° 8 kt1007.5DZ
18:20 UTC150° 10 kt1005.8
19:00 UTC8774190° 17 kt1004.7DZ
20:00 UTC83.8474210° 18 kt251004.1DZ

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1994 tornado in IndianaEvery tornado in Indiana since 1950Warnings in force in Indiana nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 23, 1994

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 232:30 PM ESTF0Jay, IN0.130
June 235:15 PM CDTF0Val Verde, TX0.220$50 to $500
June 236:32 PM CDTF0Kerr, TX0.250$5,000 to $50,000
June 239:14 PM CDTF0Burke, ND0.110

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.