EF1 tornado, Sunman, Indiana, March 8, 2009

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.

Rating

EF1

Date

March 8, 2009

Touchdown

5:22 PM EDT (21:22 UTC)

Lifted

5:24 PM EDT (21:24 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.5 miles (0.8 km)

Path width

25 yards (23 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$40,000

County

Ripley County

Touchdown point

39.194, -85.100

Lift-off point

39.199, -85.094

Record number

0903081522-01

Severe thunderstorms developed over southeast Indiana during the late afternoon as strong low pressure and an associated cold front moved through the region.

The tornado briefly touched down in two locations just west and north of the intersection of Indiana State Routes 101 and 48. The first area of damage occurred on a property located along State Route 48 about a quarter mile west of the intersection of State Routes 48 and 101. A large two-story barn sustained roof damage and had both metal garage doors blown out. Much of the north-facing wall of the garage and several small objects in the barn were blown out and thrown into an adjacent cornfield to the northeast. A second smaller barn behind the home had the back part of its metal roof peeled or removed. Two cedar trees in the vicinity of the large barn were uprooted. The homeowner and his son both witnessed the tornado lift up in the cornfield and then come back down in the vicinity of State Route 101 just north of its intersection with State Route 48. It was in this location that the second area of damage was located.| |The most significant damage was in this location along State Route 101, to a stand-alone garage and the back portion of a house. The front part of the garage had its roof completely removed and deposited in a few parts in the field to the east of the property. Several pieces of the roof trusses and fiberglass were scattered behind the garage as well. Insulation was stuck to the entire south side of the garage, and the west-facing garage door was blown out. The back part of the garage remained largely intact with little roof damage. The homeowners indicated that this part of the garage was built at a later time than the front part of the garage. Additional damage occurred to a back room to the house. This was an addition to the house, built at the same time as the front portion of the garage which sustained the brunt of the damage. The entire room was shifted off the foundation by as much as six inches and the door was blown out. Several maple trees along the back edge of the property were knocked down. Based on the type of damage to the structures and their building quality, estimated maximum winds were 85 to 90 mph.

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

36 minutes of warning. NWS ILN issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:46 UTC, 36 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:55 UTC and running to 00:00 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:36 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.

Cincinnati / N Kentucky Intl (CVG), 40 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Cincinnati radar (KILN), 113 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:22 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 2009 tornado in IndianaEvery tornado in Indiana since 1950Warnings in force in Indiana nowThe forecast where you are

25 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.