Tornadoes · United States · Indiana · 2011

EF0 tornado, Oriole, Indiana, June 19, 2011

This EF0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Perry County on June 19, 2011, touching down at 6:31 AM CDT and reaching 65 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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
June 19, 2011
Touchdown
6:31 AM CDT (11:31 UTC)
Lifted
6:32 AM CDT (11:32 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
65 yards (59 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Perry County
Touchdown point
38.183, -86.498
Lift-off point
38.183, -86.492
Record number
1106190531-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A severe squall line moved east along the Ohio River west of Louisville during the early morning hours on June 19th. Along with widespread damaging winds, several tornadoes developed along the leading edge of the gust front across southern Indiana and Central Kentucky.

Damage to trees on both sides of State Route 66 was observed where this road takes a brief northeast jog around 1.2 miles northeast of Oriole. Approximately 10 to 15 trees had either toppled or had their tops snapped. With such a brief touchdown, damage could only be observed for around 0.2 miles.

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

The warnings

20 minutes of warning. NWS LMK issued a tornado warning for this county at 11:11 UTC, 20 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 11:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 07:55 UTC and running to 13:20 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
07:55 UTC13:20 UTCTornado WatchLMK
10:43 UTC11:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLMK
10:53 UTC11:15 UTCTornado WarningLMK
11:10 UTC11:54 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLMK
11:11 UTC11:45 UTCTornado WarningLMK

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 06:00 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.

Nashville Metro, TN (KBNA), 00:00Z

11.5 hours before the tornado, 228 km from the path. June 19, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Nashville Metro, TN at 00:00Z on 2011-06-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 340 joules per kilogram, CIN -515, lifted condensation level 1700 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, Nashville Metro, TN at 00:00Z on 2011-06-19The 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 193 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 50 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
340 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-515 J/kg
Surface CAPE
727 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1700 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
50 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
193 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
328 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Nashville Metro, TN (KBNA), 12:00Z

0.5 hours after it, 228 km from the path. June 19, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Nashville Metro, TN at 12:00Z on 2011-06-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1891 joules per kilogram, CIN -148, lifted condensation level 833 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, Nashville Metro, TN at 12:00Z on 2011-06-19The 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 255 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 40 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
1891 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-148 J/kg
Surface CAPE
177 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
833 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
44 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
255 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
213 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
5.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Louisville radar (KLVX), 53 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 11:29 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
10:59 UTCTSTM WND GST 66RockportSpencer, IN
11:05 UTCTSTM WND DMGSt. MeinradSpencer, INSEVERAL SMALL TREES DOWN.
11:09 UTCTSTM WND DMGGentryvilleSpencer, INLARGE TREE DOWN.
11:31 UTCTORNADO1 N OriolePerry, INAN NWS STORM DAMAGE SURVEY CONFIRMED THAT A VERY SHORT LIVED EF-0 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN IN EXTREME NORTHEAST PERRY COUNTY INDIANA. THE 60-70 YARD WIDE TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN 2.3 MILES SOUTH OF SULPHUR SPRINGS ALONG ROUTE 66
11:33 UTCTSTM WND DMGEnglishCrawford, INNUMEROUS TREES DOWN AROUND THE COUNTY.
11:35 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 S ValeeneOrange, INSEVERAL TREES DOWNED AROUND VALEENE.
11:47 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 Wnw FredericksburgWashington, INTHE ROOF WAS BLOWN OFF THE POSEY TOWNSHIP FIRE HOUSE. SOME BLEACHERS AND AN ANNOUNCERS BOOTH WERE BLOWN ABOUT 50 YARDS.
11:53 UTCTSTM WND DMGNew SalisburyHarrison, INNUMEROUS TREES DOWN...POWER LINES DOWN
11:58 UTCTSTM WND GST 60CorydonHarrison, IN
12:01 UTCTSTM WND DMGElizabethHarrison, INTREES DOWN.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2011 tornado in IndianaEvery tornado in Indiana since 1950Warnings in force in Indiana nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 19, 2011

13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 191:57 AM CDTEF0Crawford, MO1.360
June 191:58 AM CDTEF2Crawford, MO2.8803$150,000
June 193:48 AM CDTEF1Perry, IL3.22501$550,000
June 196:39 AM CDTEF2Breckinridge, KY1.060$50,000
June 196:43 AM CDTEF0Breckinridge, KY0.160$5,000
June 193:00 PM CDTEF0Winnebago, IA0.230
June 193:55 PM CDTEF0Dodge, WI0.120
June 195:44 PM MDTEF0Dundy, NE1.550$35,000
June 195:59 PM MDTEF0Sedgwick, CO0.150
June 196:01 PM MDTEF0Dundy, NE1.950
June 198:12 PM CDTEF0Morris, KS0.125
June 198:20 PM CDTEF0Red Willow, NE2.575
June 1910:07 PM CDTEF0Atchison, MO0.540

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.