EF1 tornado, Wheatonville to Buckskin, Indiana, April 19, 2011

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

April 19, 2011

Touchdown

9:57 PM CDT (02:57 UTC)

Lifted

10:02 PM CDT (03:02 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

4.4 miles (7.1 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$130,000

Counties

Gibson and Warrick counties

Touchdown point

38.180, -87.470

Lift-off point

38.208, -87.397

Record number

1104192057-01

Thunderstorms organized into lines and bows that produced numerous reports of very damaging winds. A shortwave trough over the central and southern high Plains moved northeast through the Mid-Mississippi Valley into the upper Great Lakes. A surface low attendant to this system moved from west central Missouri northeast to north of St. Louis. The trailing cold front advanced southeast across the Lower Ohio Valley and served as the primary focus for thunderstorms.

The tornado touched down along Indiana Route 57 at Wheatonville, damaging signs. The tornado continued moving east-northeast across open farmland before reaching Indiana Route 68. Large trees were down along the entire damage path. Utility poles were snapped off along Route 68 about ten feet from the base. The tornado then crossed into Gibson County in sparsely populated farm country and woodlands in the Pigeon Creek bottoms. A path of damage consisting of broken tree tops was visible in the bottomlands. Peak winds were estimated near 95 mph. The average path width was 75 yards.

The tornado entered Gibson County from Warrick County in sparsely populated bottomland near Pigeon Creek. Two houses were damaged and trees were down along County Road 850E. The house damage consisted mainly of roof and siding damage. The majority of the damage to one home was on the east side of the home. There was relatively little damage to the west side. Large trees were down in the entire damage path. Through the wetlands along Pigeon Creek, the tops of trees were broken off. Peak winds were estimated near 95 mph. The average path width was 75 yards.

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

28 minutes of warning. NWS PAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:29 UTC, 28 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 23:46 UTC and running to 06:15 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 01:10 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.

Evansville (EVV), 18 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Evansville,IN radar (KVWX), 26 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:59 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 2011 tornado in IndianaEvery tornado in Indiana since 1950Warnings in force in Indiana nowThe forecast where you are

69 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 70 of them

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.