Tornadoes · United States · Indiana · 2014
EF0 tornado, Quincy, Indiana, June 24, 2014
This EF0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Owen County on June 24, 2014, touching down at 1:15 PM EDT and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $12,000 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
- June 24, 2014
- Touchdown
- 1:15 PM EDT (17:15 UTC)
- Lifted
- 1:16 PM EDT (17:16 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.5 miles (0.8 km)
- Path width
- 75 yards (69 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $12,000
- County
- Owen County
- Touchdown point
- 39.410, -86.727
- Lift-off point
- 39.416, -86.721
- Record number
- 1406241115-01
The damage survey
5 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS IND, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 94 mph.
- wheat field laid down exhibiting convergent axis
- Multiple trees uprooted exhibiting convergent inflow.
- Trees uprooted lying in a convergent path. Farm building demolished.
- Barn completely destroyed and thrown northwest toward path.
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
During the afternoon of June 24th, thunderstorms developed ahead of a cold front and area of low pressure. One of the storms began to rotate, and the storm eventually produced 3 tornadoes across central Indiana between 1:15 PM and 2:45 PM EDT. Two of the tornadoes were rated EF-1, with the other EF-0.
The first tornado from the thunderstorm touched down at approximately 1:15 PM EDT, 5.4 miles northwest of the town of Gosport along Truesdel Road, just east of McFarren Road, in Owen County. This tornado was rated EF-0 with winds estimated at 85 mph uprooting trees and causing minor damage to several buildings. This tornado lifted at 1:16 PM EDT after traveling one half mile.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17:26 UTC | 18:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | IND |
| 18:02 UTC | 22:00 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | IND |
| 19:30 UTC | 23:30 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | IND |
| 22:03 UTC | 01:00 UTC | Flood Advisory | 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:20 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), 12:00Z
5.3 hours before the tornado, 180 km from the path. June 24, 2014.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 300 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -15 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 771 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 564 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 25 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 6 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -12 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 6 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- -0.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.4 K/km
Lincoln, IL (KILX), 00:00Z
6.7 hours after it, 180 km from the path. June 25, 2014.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 8 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -24 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 736 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1677 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 11 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 9 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -14 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- -7 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 7.4 K/km
The radar
The Indianapolis radar (KIND), 50 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:14 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18:31 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Nw Indianapolis Int'L | Marion, IN | TREE LIMBS DOWN ALL ALONG BRIDGEPORT ROAD. TIME ESTIMATED. |
| 18:31 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Se Clermont | Marion, IN | UTILITY POLES WERE SNAPPED OR LEANING. THE SNAPPED ONE WAS BROKEN 3 TO 4 FEET ABOVE GROUND LEVEL. TREES WERE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. ROOFING DAMAGE. LAWN FURNITURE WAS STREWN ABOUT. TIME IS ESTIMATED. |
| 18:31 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 Ne Plainfield | Hendricks, IN | 200 PLUS CARS WERE DAMAGED AT AUTO AUCTION AT ADESA AT 2950 EAST MAIN STREET |
| 18:31 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Ne Plainfield | Hendricks, IN | CAMPER APPARENTLY WAS TOSSED ONTO ROOF OF HOME DESTROYING THE CAMPER AND APPROXIMATELY HALF OF THE ROOF FACING THE STREET. TORNADO DAMAGE RATING EF-1. ESTIMATED TIME. |
| 18:31 UTC | TORNADO | 6 Ne Plainfield | Marion, IN | CAMPER APPARENTLY WAS TOSSED ONTO ROOF OF HOME DESTROYING THE CAMPER AND APPROXIMATELY HALF OF THE ROOF FACING THE STREET. TORNADO DAMAGE RATING EF-1. ESTIMATED TIME. |
| 18:32 UTC | TORNADO | Plainfield | Hendricks, IN | TORNADO ON THE GROUND WITH DEBRIS. AT PERRY ROAD AND US 40 JUST EAST OF PLAINFIELD. |
| 18:37 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Ne Plainfield | Hendricks, IN | CAMPER TOSSED ONTO ROOF OF HOME DESTROYING THE CAMPER AND APPROXIMATELY HALF OF THE ROOF FACING THE STREET. TORNADO DAMAGE RATING EF-1 WITH ESTIMATED WINDS OF 100 MPH. |
| 18:43 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 3 E Plainfield | Hendricks, IN | WITNESSED AT RONALD REAGAN PKWY AND US 40 LOOKING EAST. |
| 19:00 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | Spencer | Owen, IN | WATER NEARLY COVERING ALL OF STATE ROUTE 46 THROUGH MOST OF SPENCER. MOST INTERSECTIONS FLOODED WITH WATER OVER THE CURBS. DELAYED REPORT. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2014 tornado in IndianaEvery tornado in Indiana since 1950Warnings in force in Indiana nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of June 24, 2014
2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
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.