Tornadoes · United States · Indiana · 2008
EF0 tornado, Chase, Indiana, August 4, 2008
This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Benton County on August 4, 2008, touching down at 12:20 AM EDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5,000 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.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- EF0
- Date
- August 4, 2008
- Touchdown
- 12:20 AM EDT (04:20 UTC)
- Lifted
- 12:21 AM EDT (04:21 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.1 miles (0.1 km)
- Path width
- 10 yards (9 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $5,000
- Crop damage
- $5,000
- County
- Benton County
- Touchdown point
- 40.499, -87.355
- Lift-off point
- 40.499, -87.354
- Record number
- 0808042220-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A line of powerful thunderstorms moved across northwest Indiana during the evening hours of August 4th. These storms produced widespread and significant wind damage.
A brief tornado touched near 7651S and 125W. A tool shed was destroyed and crop damage indicated swirling winds.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
39 minutes of warning. NWS LOT issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:41 UTC, 39 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:30 UTC.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 00:21 UTC and running to 07:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 00:21 UTC | 07:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | LOT |
| 03:41 UTC | 04:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | LOT |
| 11:43 UTC | 12:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | LOT |
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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:14 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), 00:00Z
4.3 hours before the tornado, 112 km from the path. August 5, 2008.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 7429 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -3 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 8767 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 819 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 31 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 14 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 104 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 175 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 3.9
- Supercell composite
- 20.6
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 7.0 K/km
Lincoln, IL (KILX), 12:00Z
7.7 hours after it, 112 km from the path. August 5, 2008.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 618 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -237 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 47 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1293 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 35 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 17 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 35 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 79 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 1.2
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.7 K/km
The radar
The Indianapolis radar (KIND), 127 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:18 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 02:51 UTC | HAIL 0.25 | Wolcott | White, IN | |
| 04:19 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Boswell | Benton, IN | POWER POLES DOWN AT COUNTY FAIRGROUNDS. |
| 04:19 UTC | NON-TSTM WND DMG | Boswell | Benton, IN | POWER POLES DOWN AT COUNTY FAIRGROUNDS. |
| 04:21 UTC | TORNADO | 1 S Boswell | Benton, IN | CONFIRMED F0 TORNADO. BEGAN AT 1221 AM EDT -AUGUST 5- 1 MILES S OF BOSWELL ON US-41. TORNADO PATH WAS 100 YARDS SOUTHEASTWARD -WIDTH 10 YARDS. DAMAGE PATH APPROX 3 MILES. |
| 04:35 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 Se Boswell | Benton, IN | SEVERAL FARM BUILDINGS DESTROYED. 2 BARNS AND 2 GRAIN BINS LEVELED. ALSO SOME DAMAGE TO HOME. LOCATION IS AT 7651S 125W. POSSIBLE TORNADO |
| 04:35 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Se Boswell | Benton, IN | SEVERAL FARM BUILDINGS DESTROYED. 2 BARNS AND 2 GRAIN BINS LEVELED. ALSO SOME DAMAGE TO HOME. LOCATION IS AT 7651S 125W. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2008 tornado in IndianaEvery tornado in Indiana since 1950Warnings in force in Indiana nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of August 4, 2008
7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 4 | 2:00 PM PDT | EF1 | San Bernardino, CA | 1.1 | 100 | $10,000 | ||
| August 4 | 5:47 PM CDT | EF0 | Clinton, IA | 8.0 | 250 | $250,000 | ||
| August 4 | 7:45 PM CDT | EF1 | DuPage, IL | 0.6 | 40 | $40,000 | ||
| August 4 | 7:45 PM CDT | EF1 | Will, IL | 1.1 | 50 | $500,000 | ||
| August 4 | 7:47 PM CDT | EF1 | DuPage, IL | 0.8 | 50 | $250,000 | ||
| August 4 | 7:59 PM CDT | EF0 | Cook, IL | 0.3 | 30 | $30,000 | ||
| August 4 | 8:27 PM CDT | EF2 | Lake, IN | 2.7 | 30 | $1.0 million |
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.