F2 tornado, Newburgh, Indiana, May 30, 2004

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.

Rating

F2

Date

May 30, 2004

Touchdown

8:40 PM CDT (01:40 UTC)

Path length

3.0 miles (4.8 km)

Path width

80 yards (73 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$2.5 million

County

Warrick County

Touchdown point

37.920, -87.450

Lift-off point

37.950, -87.420

Record number

1038

Widespread damaging winds raked southwest Indiana. Embedded short-lived tornadoes and intense downbursts caused pockets of severe damage. The single most destructive event was an F-2 tornado that struck Newburgh, Indiana. Another tornado in the northern suburbs of Evansville caused over one million dollars damage. Intense downbursts occurred in eastern Warrick County and southern Spencer County. The downburst in Warrick County occurred south of Tennyson, near the Spencer County line, where hundreds of trees were blown down or damaged. The damage area, which was caused by winds estimated near 85 MPH, was about 3.5 miles long and 50 to 75 yards wide. Little or no damage was reported to residences in this very sparsely populated area. Another larger downburst in southern Spencer County caused more significant damage from Enterprise to Rockport. Estimated winds from 70 to 80 MPH caused lots of damage to trees. The damage area was about 9 miles long and 2 miles wide. Some structures were damaged, and shingles were blown off roofs. Across the remainder of southwest Indiana, numerous trees were blown down across southern Gibson County, and a gust to 60 MPH was measured at St. Philip in Posey County. There were trees and limbs down in Posey County. Sporadic tree damage was reported across Pike County. In Warrick County, in addition to the Newburgh tornado and Tennyson downburst, there were numerous trees and power lines down in Boonville. In Spencer County, trees were blown down countywide.

This tornado touched down just west of Phelps Road, and it lifted at Highway 66 and Sharon Road. Access to the city of Newburgh was restricted due to many trees on roads and power lines. Many of the trees landed on homes, businesses, and vehicles. A front porch was torn off a home. Carports were destroyed, including one that was thrown into a ravine. The city's maintenance garage was buried under fallen trees, destroying four of the city's five trucks. Several roofs were blown off businesses. Peak winds were estimated near 120 MPH.

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 High Risk, with a 0.25 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. 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.

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.