EF2 tornado, Stewartsville to Mounts, Indiana, January 29, 2008

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 mph

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

3. EF2111 to 135 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. 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.

Rating

EF2

Date

January 29, 2008

Touchdown

5:07 PM CST (23:07 UTC)

Lifted

5:11 PM CST (23:11 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

7.0 miles (11.3 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

2

Injuries

0

Property damage

$250,000

Counties

Posey and Gibson counties

Touchdown point

38.194, -87.873

Lift-off point

38.230, -87.746

Record number

0801291707-01

A powerful cold front moved rapidly southeast across southwest Indiana during the late afternoon hours. An organized line of severe thunderstorms developed along the front as it approached southern Illinois, then swept east across southwest Indiana. Widespread damaging winds accompanied the line of storms. Temperatures fell about 30 degrees in less than one hour when the very strong cold front passed through.

A mobile home was destroyed. Two occupants of the mobile home were killed. Numerous trees were uprooted. One barn was destroyed, along with some small sheds. Four barns, three houses, and one church were damaged. The damage was mostly to roofs. Peak winds were estimated near 120 mph. The average path width was estimated to be 80 yards. The tornado continued into extreme southern Gibson County.

The tornado entered southern Gibson County from northern Posey County. Damage consisted mostly of downed trees and a few damaged barns and sheds. Peak winds were estimated near 120 mph. The average path width was about 80 yards.

The deaths

2 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 23:07 UTC and running to 23:42 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:46 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 Evansville,IN radar (KVWX), 9 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:09 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 2008 tornado in IndianaEvery tornado in Indiana since 1950Warnings in force in Indiana nowThe forecast where you are

7 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.