Tornadoes · United States · Indiana · 2010

EF0 tornado, Stones Crossing, Indiana, July 22, 2010

This EF0 tornado ran 0.8 miles across Johnson County on July 22, 2010, touching down at 2:25 PM EDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $2,000 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 mphthis tornado

    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 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
EF0
Date
July 22, 2010
Touchdown
2:25 PM EDT (18:25 UTC)
Lifted
2:28 PM EDT (18:28 UTC)
On the ground
3 minutes
Path length
0.8 miles (1.3 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$2,000
Crop damage
$500
County
Johnson County
Touchdown point
39.561, -86.156
Lift-off point
39.563, -86.141
Record number
1007221225-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Scattered thunderstorms developed across portions of Central Indiana on July 22nd. With deep layer shear under 30 knots, mulitcell storms were the main convective mode across the area. One of these cells pushed into Johnson County and interacted with an outflow boundary. This produced a weak tornado on the southwest side of Greenwood. The tornado was rated an EF0. This tornado was also referred to as a landspout.

A weak tornado touched down in Johnson County in the vicinity of Tracy Road just east of State Road 135 or on the southwest side of Greenwood. Some roofing of sheds were damaged, tree limbs were downed, and small areas of crops were flattened by this brief tornado. This tornado was rated an EF0. This tornado was also referred to as a landspout, being formed as the result of thunderstorm wind outflow boundaries interacting with the thunderstorm. Landspouts often exhibit little or no rotation on the radar, as was the case here. Landspouts tend to be brief and weak and this was evident in the damage path.

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

The warnings

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 15:58 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.

Cncnati-Daytn, OH (KILN), 12:00Z

6.4 hours before the tornado, 202 km from the path. July 22, 2010.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 12:00Z on 2010-07-22Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1012 joules per kilogram, CIN -8, lifted condensation level 553 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 12:00Z on 2010-07-22The 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 13 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 16 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
1012 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-8 J/kg
Surface CAPE
191 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
553 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
13 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
88 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.5
0-3 km lapse rate
4.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Cncnati-Daytn, OH (KILN), 00:00Z

5.6 hours after it, 202 km from the path. July 23, 2010.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 00:00Z on 2010-07-23Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2027 joules per kilogram, CIN -7, lifted condensation level 872 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 00:00Z on 2010-07-23The 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 81 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 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
2027 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-7 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2469 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
872 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
81 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
138 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.7
Supercell composite
5.6
0-3 km lapse rate
6.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Indianapolis (IND), 21 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
16:54 UTC8174160° 7 kt1017.6
17:03 UTC80.673.4170° 5 kt1017.6-TSRA
17:28 UTC80.675.2150° 7 kt1017.3-RA
17:54 UTC8277130° 6 kt1017.3
18:54 UTC8578160° 7 kt1016.3
19:54 UTC8577230° 8 kt1016.3RA

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

The radar

The Indianapolis radar (KIND), 20 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:24 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
18:25 UTCTORNADO5 Sw GreenwoodJohnson, INEF0 TORNADO NEAR COUNTY ROAD 600N AND COUNTY ROAD 200W. TORNADO INITIALLY REPORTED BY STATE HOMELAND SECURITY OFFICIAL.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2010 tornado in IndianaEvery tornado in Indiana since 1950Warnings in force in Indiana nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of July 22, 2010

16 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 222:38 AM CDTEF1Pocahontas, IA2.6250$1.0 million
July 224:08 PM CDTEF1Dane, WI1.530$1,000
July 224:24 PM CDTEF0Dane, WI3.030
July 225:45 PM EDTEF0Branch, MI1.5300
July 225:10 PM CDTEF0Jefferson, WI5.730
July 225:35 PM CDTEF0Jefferson, WI0.130
July 225:51 PM CDTEF0Beltrami, MN4.715
July 226:02 PM CDTEF1Dane, WI4.275$20,000
July 226:22 PM CDTEF0Jefferson, WI2.875
July 226:30 PM CDTEF0Otter Tail, MN1.015
July 226:38 PM CDTEF0Jefferson, WI3.975
July 226:52 PM CDTEF1Dane, WI1.575$5,000
July 227:02 PM CDTEF2Waukesha, WI1.0100$75,000
July 227:10 PM CDTEF0Dane, WI0.230
July 228:05 PM CDTEF1Douglas, MN0.630$50,000
July 2210:23 PM EDTEF0Allegan, MI0.250

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.