EF0 tornado, Seafield to Reynolds, Indiana, March 31, 2016

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

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

3.1 miles (5.0 km)

Path width

120 yards (110 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

White County

Touchdown point

40.746, -86.976

Lift-off point

40.769, -86.925

Record number

1603311556-02

8 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS IWX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 94 mph.

• Starting point of rotation - reported by Ray Allie
• complete loss of structure. Debris deposited along the entire path. Time approximate.
• Doors from outbuildings removed. Time approximate.
• Shingles on south side of house were lifted and some blown off to the north. Time based on radar image.

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.

Damage patterns within a 6 miles swath indicate a tornado was likely skipping along its track. Touchdown occurred south of US-24 between South County Road 600 West and 500 West where a barn was destroyed with debris being carried several miles to the northeast. The tornado remained over mainly open fields until pushing over several steel power poles at their base east of the intersection of US-24 and South County Road 500 West. A large pole barn suffered moderate rood damage as winds entered a gap on the bottom of the structure. A home suffered minor roof damage near the intersection of West County Road 100 North and North County Road 300 West. Other damage was found northeast of this location, but was inconclusive as to whether it was the result of tornadic winds. Maximum winds are estimated at 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.

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.

Monticello (MCX), 16 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), 124 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.