EF1 tornado, Saltillo to Mt Carmel, Indiana, May 25, 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

May 25, 2011

Touchdown

10:31 PM EDT (02:31 UTC)

Lifted

10:33 PM EDT (02:33 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

2.4 miles (3.9 km)

Path width

130 yards (119 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$30,000

County

Washington County

Touchdown point

38.712, -86.309

Lift-off point

38.738, -86.264

Record number

1105252031-01

Warm humid air in place across the Lower Ohio Valley ahead of deep closed low over Missouri led to widespread severe weather across the lower Missouri Valley and Indiana. A squall line developed across southern Illinois and western Kentucky during the afternoon hours on May 25th and raced across southern Indiana at around 45 mph during the evening and early morning hours on the 26th. Widespread wind damage was reported with frequent reports of 60 to 70 mph winds. A bow echo brought several embedded tornadoes across Dubois, Orange, and Washington counties in southern Indiana.

This is the final stretch of the tornado that originated in Orange County, 3.1 miles northwest of Saltillo. After clipping the extreme southeast portion of Lawrence County, it entered Washington County just south of East County Road 700 North and tracked northeastward for another 1.2 miles before dissipating at Spangler Hill Road. It caused EF-1 damage to numerous trees before lifting. The tornado's total path length was 3.2 miles.

This tornado snapped and uprooted numerous trees along its 2.4 mile path. After touching down just east of the Lawrence/Washington County line south of W Saltillo Bono Rd, it downed several trees while moving over mainly open pasture land. Near the intersection of N Spangler Hill Rd and W Henry Brown Rd, it heavily damaged a metal outbuilding. From here it continued northeast, downing numerous trees and power lines as it roughly paralleled N Spangler Hill Rd through forested hills before dissipating near the intersection of N Spangler Hill Rd and N White River Rd.

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

6 minutes of warning. NWS LMK issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:25 UTC, 6 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 01:34 UTC and running to 04:15 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 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 00:57 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 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.

Bloomington (BMG), 55 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Louisville radar (KLVX), 89 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:32 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

93 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 94 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.