EF1 tornado, Hartman, Indiana, March 31, 2016

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

March 31, 2016

Touchdown

5:56 PM EDT (21:56 UTC)

Lifted

5:59 PM EDT (21:59 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

0.7 miles (1.2 km)

Path width

60 yards (55 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Wabash County

Touchdown point

40.809, -85.881

Lift-off point

40.813, -85.868

Record number

1603311556-01

9 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS IWX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 105 mph.

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

Low pressure moved northeast into Lower Michigan with a trailing cold front across northern Indiana. Strong bulk shear in excess of 85 knots, combined with CAPE on the order of 500 J/KG and 0-1 km helicity values over 150 m2/s2 set the stage for a few lines of showers to develop. The low topped nature of the activity prevented lightning from developing despite strong updrafts at times. Pockets of wind damage occurred as a result of microbursts, with damage consistent with tornadoes being found in 2 locations within the swaths of damage.

Touchdown occurred on the south side of West County Road 100 South, about one quarter mile east of South County Road 475 West. A old, small metal farm outbuilding was destroyed with metal roofing from a nearby pole barn being removed. A manufactured home was moved off its cinder block foundation to the east about 4 feet. Several softwood trees were snapped about 4 feet off the ground and dragged to the east. Some of the debris was lifted and thrown NNE about a quarter mile. The tornado then moved northeast and ripped a porch roof off a home on West County Road 100 South, with the debris being thrown to the north. Several pieces of wood were driven at least 18 inches into the ground and pointing in a southeast direction. The tornado then skipped northeast across a field to State Road 115 where it snapped 3 utility poles and lifted. Maximum wind speeds were estimated at 105 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.

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 20:00 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.

The Northern Indiana radar (KIWX), 63 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:53 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 2016 tornado in IndianaEvery tornado in Indiana since 1950Warnings in force in Indiana nowThe forecast where you are

19 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.