EF1 tornado, Lagrange, Indiana, June 30, 2014

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

June 30, 2014

Touchdown

1:38 AM EDT (05:38 UTC)

Lifted

1:40 AM EDT (05:40 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.9 miles (1.5 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

LaGrange County

Touchdown point

41.641, -85.440

Lift-off point

41.643, -85.422

Record number

1406302338-01

3 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS IWX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The highest wind the damage implies is 76 mph.

• Small area of trees on leading edge of clearing suffered varying degrees of damage. Many were dead ash trees. HInt of a possible touchdown in this area but other DI's in immediate vicinity showed no indications of touchdown.
• Few branches broken or snapped.
• Additional tree damage near river. EM reported no further damage noted beyond this point.

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

A line of severe thunderstorms developed in eastern Iowa during the afternoon hours of June 30th. Plenty of instability and moisture was available for the line to mature into a severe bow-echo with the bulk of this racing northwest of the area into Wisconsin and Central Lower Michigan. The southern flank of this line did briefly take on bowing characteristics, producing gusty winds over southern Lake Michigan into portions of northwestern Indiana and far southwestern Lower Michigan before dissipating. Behind this line, a much stronger line of thunderstorms rapidly developed on a pre-frontal trough in northern Illinois. This line had much more favorable parameters to work with deep layer shear to 50 knots and a rapidly increasing low level jet to 50 knots. As this second line of convection raced into northwestern Indiana during the late evening hours, several stronger circulations were noted along the leading edge that lead to multiple tornado confirmations and swaths of at times extensive wind damage. The second event continued into July 1st with additional wind damage and confirmed tornadoes occurring during the early morning hours.

A NWS survey found damage consistent with a EF-1 tornado in a larger area of straight line wind damage. The tornado touched down just west of LaGrange on US-20 East of County Road 100 West, where tree limb damage was observed. The tornado tracked east towards LaGrange, uprooting and snapping trees as it entered the town south of the local hospital. Numerous trees were uprooted and snapped just west of South County Road 00 East between US-20 and Grant Street. The tornado produced minor structural damage to homes along Grant Street before lifting just west of South Mountain Street. Maximum winds were estimated at 95 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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 03:35 UTC and running to 06:56 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:00 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.

Sturgis/Kirsch (IRS), 19 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Northern Indiana radar (KIWX), 39 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:39 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 2014 tornado in IndianaEvery tornado in Indiana since 1950Warnings in force in Indiana nowThe forecast where you are

45 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.