EF3 tornado, Lincoln to Mc Grawsville, Indiana, June 5, 2010

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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3

Date

June 5, 2010

Touchdown

1:41 AM EDT (05:41 UTC)

Lifted

1:51 AM EDT (05:51 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

7.5 miles (12.0 km)

Path width

250 yards (229 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

Property damage

$875,000

Counties

Miami and Cass counties

Touchdown point

40.638, -86.184

Lift-off point

40.626, -86.046

Record number

1006052341-01

A supercell developed ahead of a cold front in Illinois and tracked east-southeast through Benton county into White county. This storm produced three tornadoes across Indiana, an EF0 in Eastern White County (which moved into Carroll County), an EF1 which started in eastern Carroll County and moved into Cass County, and a third, a stronger EF3 which formed near the Grissom Air Force base in Cass County and moved rapidly east into Miami County. Despite the tornadoes occurring during the overnight hours, no fatalities occurred.

After a brief break, the supercell produced one more circulation which touched down just west of the Cass/Miami county line along South County Road 1000 East. Several yards in the area had trees uprooted and limbs down (DI: TH, DOD: 4). A few residences were impacted by the trees, causing mainly roof or window damage. The circulation then went into a dense grove of trees with the circulation briefly weakening before coming back out near the Grissom Air Reserve Base. A 200 foot section of security fence on the southwest corner of the base was blown down into the adjacent roadway and portions of the nearby field before crossing into Miami County. An Automated Weather Observation System recorded a 114 mph wind gust as the circulation passed through.

The tornado that entered this county exited the Grissom Air Reserve base on the Cass/Miami county line and continued east-southeast, crossing a small area of trees where signs of slight debarking was noted (DI: TH DOD: 5). The tornado continued on along to the 3000 block of County Road 900 South where the most substantial damage occurred to a one and one half story home. Only a few kitchen walls remains of the structure (DI: FR12, DOD 8) with one resident in the kitchen and one in the basement. Two other residences suffered extensive damage but remained intact. The tornado crossed US 31 and continued for a few more miles, causing some additional tree and structure damage including several buildings at a hog farm being destroyed. The tornado eventually dissipated east of Strawpike Road, north of East 1000 South in a field. A local newspaper article reported that a check that was originally located at the destroyed home was found nearly 50 miles away in Wells County in perfect condition. Total damage along the track of the tornado is estimated at $750,000.

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

21 minutes of warning. NWS IWX issued a tornado warning for this county at 05:20 UTC, 21 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 06:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 02:11 UTC and running to 07:48 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 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 01:06 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 Northern Indiana radar (KIWX), 88 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:39 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 2010 tornado in IndianaEvery tornado in Indiana since 1950Warnings in force in Indiana nowThe forecast where you are

42 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.