F0 tornado, Sandusky, Indiana, December 7, 2004

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.

Rating

F0

Date

December 7, 2004

Touchdown

10:15 AM EST (15:15 UTC)

Path length

1.5 miles (2.4 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$10,000

County

Decatur County

Touchdown point

39.400, -85.500

Lift-off point

39.420, -85.480

Record number

716

A few strong storms moved through southeastern portions of central Indiana on the morning of 7 December 2004. While most were not severe, one did manage to produce a brief tornado in Decatur County.

On Tuesday 7 December 2004, a rare December tornado touched down near the small town of Sandusky, just north of Greensburg in Decatur County. The touchdown took place just south of the intersection of County Roads 150 West and 500 North at approximately 10:15 a.m. EST. The tornado traveled to the northeast for 1.5 miles, lifting just southwest of Sandusky near State Road 3. The path width was 75 yards, and the tornado was rated as an F0. Damage included a fence row blown down, shingles removed from homes and barns, one barn with partial roof damage, and a steeple blown off a rooftop near Sandusky. This tornado struck just 2 miles north of where another rare late-season tornado struck near Greensburg on November 24th.A preliminary search by NWS staff indicated that this was the first December tornado in Indiana since an F1 touched down in Marshall County, Indiana on 4 December 1973.

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

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 06:52 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 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.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2004 tornado in IndianaEvery tornado in Indiana since 1950Warnings in force in Indiana nowThe forecast where you are

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

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