Tornadoes · United States · Indiana · 2011

EF0 tornado, New Middletown, Indiana, June 22, 2011

This EF0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Harrison County on June 22, 2011, touching down at 7:27 PM EDT and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5,000 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
June 22, 2011
Touchdown
7:27 PM EDT (23:27 UTC)
Lifted
7:28 PM EDT (23:28 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.3 miles (0.5 km)
Path width
75 yards (69 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000
County
Harrison County
Touchdown point
38.142, -86.050
Lift-off point
38.143, -86.047
Record number
1106221727-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A cold front associated with a vigorous closed low over the Upper Midwest approached the Ohio River during the late afternoon. Several storms developed to the west of Louisville during the late afternoon hours. Despite limited moisture and instability, a strong jet aloft and directional wind shear led to rotating low-topped supercells. One such storm led to a weak tornado in Harrison County, Indiana. This storm moved east into Louisville, KY and produced a second tornado that damaged horse barns at Churchill Downs.

Touching down in the 3900 block of Elizabeth-New Middletown Road, this weak EF-0 tornado damaged a row of trees next to a home. It also removed some flashing from this home before crossing Elizabeth-New Middletown Road and entering a wooded area. Several large limbs were broken off within the forest canopy before the tornado lifted. The same storm later spawned a tornado 15 miles east that damaged several horse barns at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky.

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

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:31 UTC23:40 UTCTornado WarningLMK
00:43 UTC01:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLMK
01:39 UTC02:15 UTCTornado WarningLMK
02:06 UTC02:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm 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 19:57 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), 12:00Z

11.5 hours before the tornado, 229 km from the path. June 22, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Nashville Metro, TN at 12:00Z on 2011-06-22Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 475 joules per kilogram, CIN -53, lifted condensation level 525 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 2011-06-22The 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 166 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 29 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
475 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-53 J/kg
Surface CAPE
272 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
525 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
166 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
176 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
3.4
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

0.5 hours after it, 229 km from the path. June 23, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Nashville Metro, TN at 00:00Z on 2011-06-23Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 410 joules per kilogram, CIN -48, lifted condensation level 786 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 2011-06-23The 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 72 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 53 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
410 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-48 J/kg
Surface CAPE
505 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
786 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
53 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
72 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
72 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
1.4
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Fort Knox/Godman (FTK), 27 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:55 UTC80.2473.4180° 12 kt1009.1
22:55 UTC79.773180° 8 kt161008.5
23:55 UTC79.3473.58180° 15 kt211008.1
00:55 UTC76.8273.4180° 13 kt1007.8

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

The radar

The Louisville radar (KLVX), 21 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:26 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
23:27 UTCFUNNEL CLOUDElizabethHarrison, INNEW MIDDLETOWN FIREHOUSE REPORTED FUNNEL CLOUD WITH A POSSIBLE TOUCHDOWN. TIME BASED ON RADAR.
23:27 UTCTORNADO2 Sse New MiddletownHarrison, INNWS STORM DAMAGE SURVEY CONFIRMED AN EF-0 TORNADO 1.5 MILES SOUTH-SOUTHEAST OF NEW MIDDLETOWN. TORNADO DAMAGED A ROW OF TREES AND REMOVED SOME SIDING FROM A HOUSE. SNAPPED LARGE TREE LIMBS EAST OF ELIZABETH-NEW MIDDLETOW

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 22, 2011

7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 221:37 PM EDTEF0Leelanau, MI0.375$20,000
June 2212:50 PM CDTEF1Calhoun, MS1.11001$35,000
June 226:40 PM EDTEF0Roane, TN0.620$5,000
June 228:04 PM EDTEF2Jefferson, KY1.2120$400,000
June 229:29 PM EDTEF1Jefferson, KY1.9150$150,000
June 229:34 PM EDTEF2Jefferson, KY1.6100$175,000
June 229:38 PM EDTEF1Jefferson, KY3.560$75,000

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.