Tornadoes · United States · Indiana · 1996

F2 tornado, Leavenworth to New Middletown, Indiana, May 28, 1996

From Leavenworth to New Middletown, this F2 tornado ran 10.0 miles across Harrison County on May 28, 1996, touching down at 5:55 PM EDT and reaching 575 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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 mph

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

  3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

    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
F2
Date
May 28, 1996
Touchdown
5:55 PM EDT (21:55 UTC)
Path length
10.0 miles (16.1 km)
Path width
575 yards (526 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Harrison County
Touchdown point
38.170, -86.320
Lift-off point
38.150, -86.050
Record number
263

What the Weather Service recorded

A classic supercell thunderstorm formed over southern Dubois county and moved across Crawford and Harrison counties before moving across north central and east central Kentucky. The first tornado that the supercell produced was across Harrison county. The tornado first appeared across the far western part of the county in the southern portion of the Harrison State Forest. The tornado moved 10 miles to just 1 mile south of New Middletown before dissapating. It snapped and debarked numerous trees in rural areas and was estimated as an F2 on the Fujita scale with winds estimated at 150 mph. The path length was estimated to 1/3 of a mile.

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.

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 06:04 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.

Nashville Metro, TN (KBNA), 12:00Z

9.9 hours before the tornado, 229 km from the path. May 28, 1996.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Nashville Metro, TN at 12:00Z on 1996-05-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1 joules per kilogram, CIN -254, lifted condensation level 1023 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, Nashville Metro, TN at 12:00Z on 1996-05-28The 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 163 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 49 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-254 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1023 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
49 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
163 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
197 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
4.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Nashville Metro, TN (KBNA), 00:00Z

2.1 hours after it, 229 km from the path. May 29, 1996.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Nashville Metro, TN at 00:00Z on 1996-05-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2991 joules per kilogram, CIN -3, lifted condensation level 989 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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, Nashville Metro, TN at 00:00Z on 1996-05-29The 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 150 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 63 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
2991 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-3 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3477 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
989 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
63 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
150 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
260 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
4.6
Supercell composite
16.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Fort Knox/Godman (FTK), 34 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
20:00 UTC8169190° 9 kt1007.8
21:00 UTC81.8669190° 8 kt1006.8
22:00 UTC8168190° 12 kt181005.1
23:00 UTC7967 1005.4
23:28 UTC220° 5 kt1005.4
23:35 UTC210° 6 kt1005.1

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

The radar

The Louisville radar (KLVX), 29 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:53 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1996 tornado in IndianaEvery tornado in Indiana since 1950Warnings in force in Indiana nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 28, 1996

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 289:40 AM MDTF0Millard, UT0.220
May 281:35 PM CDTF0Champaign, IL0.340
May 284:09 PM ESTF0Knox, IN11.075$10,000
May 285:40 PM ESTF0Dubois, IN0.5100
May 286:40 PM EDTF4Jefferson, KY30.085010$101 million
May 287:53 PM EDTF0Anderson, KY0.5575
May 288:10 PM EDTF2Anderson, KY10.05751$1.0 million
May 287:15 PM CDTF0Barren, KY0.550
May 288:42 PM EDTF0Jessamine, KY10.0575
May 289:20 PM EDTF0Harrison, KY0.550$10,000
May 2810:35 PM EDTF0Lincoln, KY12.050

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.