Tornadoes · United States · Indiana · 2013
EF0 tornado, Allendale to Riley, Indiana, May 9, 2013
From Allendale to Riley, this EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Vigo County on May 9, 2013, touching down at 8:14 PM EDT and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $2,000 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.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- May 9, 2013
- Touchdown
- 8:14 PM EDT (00:14 UTC)
- Lifted
- 8:15 PM EDT (00:15 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.1 miles (0.2 km)
- Path width
- 20 yards (18 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $2,000
- County
- Vigo County
- Touchdown point
- 39.376, -87.415
- Lift-off point
- 39.376, -87.412
- Record number
- 1305091814-01
The damage survey
2 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 80 mph.
- Tree had rotted trunk near base. Nearby large tree limbs downed.
Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.
What the Weather Service recorded
A thunderstorm squall line produced two small, brief tornadoes Wednesday evening near Terre Haute. The first touchdown occurred near 815 PM EDT along East Curry Road near Hultz Road about 5 miles south of Terre Haute. The tornado was observed by a storm spotter and caused damage to several trees. The tornado was rated an EF0 with winds around 80 mph. A second tornado from the same storm occurred near 825 PM EDT in Riley, about 5 miles southeast of Terre Haute. This tornado was observed by Riley volunteer fireman in a field just west of their fire station. The second tornado destroyed a small shed and downed several tree limbs. This tornado was rated an EF0 with associated winds also around 80 mph.||A cluster of showers and thunderstorms also produced a singular wind damage and hail report from central Indiana.
The tornado touchdown occurred along East Curry Road near Hultz Road, about five miles south of Terre Haute. The tornado was observed by a storm spotter and caused damage to several trees. It was rated an EF-0 with associated winds around 80 mph.
The Riley Fire Department reported a tornado traveling northwest through a field, west of the town of Riley. This tornado leveled a storage shed and downed several tree limbs at a residence off of East Gross Road, near State Road 159. This tornado was rated an EF-0 with associated winds around 80 mph.
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.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23:52 UTC | 00:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | IND |
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. The outlook in force was issued at 20:01 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.
Lincoln, IL (KILX), 00:00Z
0.2 hours before the tornado, 133 km from the path. May 10, 2013.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 257 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- 0 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 801 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 532 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 36 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 15 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 110 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 178 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.1
- Supercell composite
- 1.6
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.2 K/km
Lincoln, IL (KILX), 12:00Z
11.8 hours after it, 133 km from the path. May 10, 2013.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 35 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -23 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 60 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 474 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 36 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 17 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 4 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 32 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.6 K/km
The radar
The Indianapolis radar (KIND), 104 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:14 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:20 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 S Terre Haute | Vigo, IN | TREES REPOERTED DOWN NEAR US41 AND CARLISE RD. SPOTTER REPORTS POSSIBLE TORNADO. |
| 00:29 UTC | TORNADO | Riley | Vigo, IN | RILEY FIRE DEPARTMENT REPORTS TORNADO...POSSIBLY STRIKING A HOME. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2013 tornado in IndianaEvery tornado in Indiana since 1950Warnings in force in Indiana nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of May 9, 2013
7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 9 | 4:31 PM EDT | EF0 | Norfolk, MA | 0.4 | 50 | $20,000 | ||
| May 9 | 5:00 PM CDT | EF0 | Kiowa, OK | 0.1 | 10 | |||
| May 9 | 3:30 PM PDT | EF0 | Wallowa, OR | 0.1 | 10 | |||
| May 9 | 5:41 PM CDT | EF0 | Christian, IL | 0.6 | 20 | |||
| May 9 | 6:21 PM CDT | EF0 | Jackson, OK | 0.1 | 20 | |||
| May 9 | 8:24 PM EDT | EF0 | Vigo, IN | 0.1 | 20 | $2,000 | ||
| May 9 | 11:35 PM CDT | EF0 | Beauregard Parish, LA | 1.0 | 20 | $10,000 |
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.