EF1 tornado, Ingalls, Indiana, February 27, 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

February 27, 2011

Touchdown

12:30 AM EST (05:30 UTC)

Lifted

12:32 AM EST (05:32 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.6 miles (1.0 km)

Path width

40 yards (37 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$105,000

County

Madison County

Touchdown point

39.951, -85.819

Lift-off point

39.960, -85.818

Record number

1102272330-01

A potent storm system moved across central Indiana late on February 27 and early on February 28. Warm and moist air moved into the area with the system, and this allowed thunderstorms to develop. Some of the storms produced hail, damaging winds, heavy rain, and one storm produced a tornado near the town of Ingalls. ||In addition to the tornado damage, downburst straight-line wind damage was also observed just south of the tornado touchdown near Woods Drive at State Road 67. Additional downburst straight-line wind damage in the form of downed trees, limbs and power lines occurred further southwest on State Road 67 in Fortville at Motel Road, Industrial Drive and just north and west of the downtown area. ||Northern sections of central Indiana saw 1 to 3 inches of rain, with isolated 4 to 5 inch amounts. This rain, combined with water from a melted snow cover, led to flooding of numerous streams, creeks, and rivers. Flooding also occurred in low lying areas. Some creeks and rivers experienced record flooding.

A small, brief tornado touched down in extreme southern Madison County just west of the town of Ingalls at approximately 12:30 AM EST. The tornado began near County Road 1050 South, just west of County Road 750 West, pushing the roof off of a house. From there the tornado continued north, damaging a large barn up the hill north of the flooding Lick Creek. The tornado also destroyed a pole barn, damaged a home, and a 30 foot long trailer along County Road 1000 South. Further damage to trees occurred across the road from the pole barn before the tornado lifted. Based on the damage to the homes and barns, the tornado produced EF1 intensity damage with maximum winds estimated at just over 100 mph. The tornadoes path was just over a half mile long.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

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 00:59 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 Indianapolis radar (KIND), 48 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:30 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

19 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.