F0 tornado, Kentland to Brook, Indiana, May 30, 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

May 30, 2004

Touchdown

7:32 PM CDT (00:32 UTC)

Path length

2.5 miles (4.0 km)

Path width

20 yards (18 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Newton County

Touchdown point

40.770, -87.380

Lift-off point

40.770, -87.330

Record number

965

The tornado began at a quarry about 3 miles east of Kentland, on US 24, just west of Meridian Road. It continued moving east northeast for about 2 1/2 miles. At the quarry, an antenna was blown down, windows and garage doors were blown out at a building. Another metal building had the west wall pushed in and part of the roof peeled off. An empty hopper railroad car was pushed about 50 yards down the track. At the east end of the quarry, along Meridian Road, a fence was ripped up and thrown across the road and into a field. Two power poles were snapped. Grain bins were destroyed near County Road 100 East on US 24.

The tornado began about 1 1/2 miles west of Brook just south of highway 16, and it continued moving east northeast for 4 1/2 miles before ending near the Iroquois River, north of Foresman. The tornado was about 20 yards wide. It briefly produced F1 damage with estimated winds of 70 to 90 mph on the west side of Brook where large trees were damaged and there was roof damage to homes. The tornado only produced minor damage to roofs as it went through the center of the business district. Tree limbs were also knocked down on the northeast side of town. East of Brook, on County Road 300 East, a machine shed was destroyed and part of the roof was taken off another shed. A large tree was taken down near State Road 55.

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

38 minutes of warning. NWS LOT issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:54 UTC, 38 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:45 UTC.

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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:38 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 Chicago radar (KLOT), 111 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:32 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

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

80 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 81 of them

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.