Tornadoes · United States · Indiana · 2007

EF1 tornado, LaPorte County, Indiana, April 26, 2007

This EF1 tornado ran 0.5 miles across LaPorte County on April 26, 2007, touching down at 4:08 PM CDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $40,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. EF065 to 85 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

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

  3. EF2111 to 135 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. EF3136 to 165 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. EF4166 to 200 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. EF5over 200 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
EF1
Date
April 26, 2007
Touchdown
4:08 PM CDT (21:08 UTC)
Lifted
4:11 PM CDT (21:11 UTC)
On the ground
3 minutes
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$40,000
County
LaPorte County
Touchdown point
41.679, -86.693
Lift-off point
41.683, -86.685
Record number
0704261508-01

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.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:33 UTC and running to 00:40 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
18:33 UTC00:40 UTCTornado WatchIWX
21:10 UTC21:45 UTCTornado WarningIWX
21:35 UTC22:15 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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:01 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.

Lincoln, IL (KILX), 12:00Z

9.1 hours before the tornado, 234 km from the path. April 26, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2007-04-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 171 joules per kilogram, CIN -1, lifted condensation level 528 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2007-04-26The 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 59 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 17 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
171 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-1 J/kg
Surface CAPE
295 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
528 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
59 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
79 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lincoln, IL (KILX), 00:00Z

2.9 hours after it, 234 km from the path. April 27, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2007-04-27Temperature 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 -1, lifted condensation level 640 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2007-04-27The 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 20 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 12 knots.1939Sfc1 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
-1 J/kg
Surface CAPE
28 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
640 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
20 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
45 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Northern Indiana radar (KIWX), 90 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:06 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.

What was reported nearby

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

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
21:08 UTCTORNADO4 E Michigan CityLa Porte, INREPORTED NEAR US 20 AND FAIL ROAD
21:14 UTCTORNADOLa PorteLa Porte, IN200E AND RANGE ROAD...TORNADO REPORTED BY LAW ENFORCEMENT
21:18 UTCTORNADO3 Ne La PorteLa Porte, IN*** 1 INJ *** EF1 TORNADO DETERMINED BY NWS SURVEY AT CORNER OF FAIL ROAD AND 650 N.
21:25 UTCTORNADO10 Ne La PorteLa Porte, INPATROL CAR FLIPPED OVER
21:40 UTCTORNADO6 E La PorteLa Porte, INTORNADO REPORTED ON THE GROUND NEAR US20...NAER 650E AND FAIL ROAD
21:50 UTCHAIL 0.882 E La PorteLa Porte, INNICKEL SIZE HAIL REPORTED IN LA PORTE...IN

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2007 tornado in IndianaEvery tornado in Indiana since 1950Warnings in force in Indiana nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 26, 2007

10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 262:58 PM CDTEF0Will, IL3.25$100,000
April 263:50 PM CDTEF0Cumberland, TN7.950$20,000
April 264:18 PM CDTEF1LaPorte, IN0.34501$40,000
April 266:55 PM EDTEF0Brown, OH0.550$50,000
April 267:12 PM EDTEF1Berrien, MI1.250$10,000
April 267:23 PM EDTEF1Adams, OH1.550$70,000
April 267:50 PM EDTEF1Fleming, KY3.6200$100,000
April 267:52 PM EDTEF1Claiborne, TN4.6757$425,000
April 268:25 PM EDTEF0Pike, OH1.030$25,000
April 267:02 PM MDTEF0Arapahoe, CO0.150

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.