EF2 tornado, Mitchell to Leipsic, Indiana, March 1, 2017

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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

March 1, 2017

Touchdown

5:37 AM EST (10:37 UTC)

Lifted

5:39 AM EST (10:39 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.7 miles (1.1 km)

Path width

25 yards (23 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

Property damage

$175,000

Counties

Lawrence and Orange counties

Touchdown point

38.690, -86.341

Lift-off point

38.688, -86.328

Record number

1703010437-01

46 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS IND and NWS LMK, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 130 mph.

• Pole barn completely destroyed with debris thrown to the east.
• Three chicken barns collapsed.
• All 3 Chicken barns collapsed. This portion (NW corner) was completely destroyed with the debris strewn about to the east.
• Half of this metal barn/shed was destroyed.

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

A low pressure system brought very warm and unstable air for late February and early March to central Indiana. The result was severe thunderstorms and 7 tornadoes from the 28th of February to March 1st. A surface frontal system interacted with an unstable and high shear environment to produce the severe weather.

The combination of a moist and unseasonably warm air mass and an approaching low pressure system and cold front brought multiple rounds of severe weather to southern Indiana during the early morning hours on March 1. In the end, there were 5 tornadoes across southern Indiana, the strongest being an EF-2 that tracked through portions of Dubois County. In addition to the tornadoes, there were several areas of intense straight-line winds estimated up to 100 mph in places. The impacts included numerous areas of structural damage and downed trees. The widespread heavy rain brought the Muscatatuck River at Deputy into minor flood.

This EF-1 tornado, with winds up to 110 mph, uprooted trees at the start of the path. Uphill, a barn's roof was lofted nearly 100 yards to the northeast. The associated house had the majority of the roof lofted and thrown over 100 yards to the northeast. The east wall of the house and garage displayed widespread mud and insulation splatter. Insulation also splattered inside the mailbox from an east wind component. A lamp post was broken, laying westward.

This EF-2 tornado, with maximum wind speeds of 130 mph, collapsed 3 metal chicken barns and damaged or destroyed some outbuildings. The tornado continued southeast into NWS WFO Louisville's area of responsibility.

This is an extension of the Lawrence County EF-2 tornado that briefly crossed into Orange County before lifting. The tornado produced EF-1 level damage in Orange County, destroying two mobile homes. One mobile home rolled over onto a new vehicle where three occupants were unhurt. The car ended up inside the living room of the mobile home. The other mobile home took a direct hit, taking the roof off and blowing the walls out of half of the home. An occupant of the home was blown into the field with home debris, while leaving living room furniture in place. The resident received only minor injuries.

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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 05:42 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 Louisville radar (KLVX), 86 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 10:38 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 2017 tornado in IndianaEvery tornado in Indiana since 1950Warnings in force in Indiana nowThe forecast where you are

38 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.