EF0 tornado, North Salem, Indiana, May 21, 2013

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

May 21, 2013

Touchdown

2:34 AM EDT (06:34 UTC)

Lifted

2:35 AM EDT (06:35 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.1 miles (0.2 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$10,000

County

Hendricks County

Touchdown point

39.873, -86.667

Lift-off point

39.875, -86.665

Record number

1305210034-01

12 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS IND, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.

• Center Pivot Irrigation system destroyed.
• Tin roof panels blown off.
• Large tree with hollow trunk snapped near base. A normal, healthy tree of this size would likely indicate EF-1 or greater damage but due to the hollow center this particular poitn was though to be in the high end EF-0 range.
• Large branches snapped out of approximately the top third of trees in front yard.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

A large line of storms swept across central Indiana overnight causing sporadic damage in many areas. One weak tornado occurred west of Brownsburg near North Salem. Toppled trees, snapped limbs, and damage to a barn and house revealed evidence of rotation in the winds and damage consistent with an EF0 tornado. | |Surveying in the Roachdale area north of Greencastle also yielded evidence of an EF0 tornado, where structural and tree damage was observed.| |Additional damage survey work in southern Hendricks County southwest of Plainfield revealed two separate paths of straight-line wind damage paralleling both sides of US 40 east of Stilesville. Damage in Hazelwood, the southern-most of the two tracks, also offered evidence of a microburst, intense damage over a short and narrow path.

One weak tornado occurred west of Brownsburg near North Salem. Toppled trees, snapped limbs, light damage to a barn, and minor roof damage revealed evidence of rotation in the winds and damage consistent with an EF0 tornado with winds up to 85 mph.

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.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 03:57 UTC and running to 07:42 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 05:59 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), 38 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 06:47 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 2013 tornado in IndianaEvery tornado in Indiana since 1950Warnings in force in Indiana nowThe forecast where you are

1 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.