EF1 tornado, Saltillo to Rush Creek Vly, 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 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 1, 2017

Touchdown

5:41 AM EST (10:41 UTC)

Lifted

5:47 AM EST (10:47 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

5.8 miles (9.3 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$150,000

County

Washington County

Touchdown point

38.681, -86.280

Lift-off point

38.673, -86.186

Record number

1703010441-01

53 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.

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.

A NWS storm survey, in conjunction with Washington County Emergency Management concluded that the tornado touched down and was embedded in a larger field of straight-line winds. The path length was 5.8 miles with a max width of 100 yards for the tornado, however the overall straight-line wind path width was close to a mile wide in spots. The most intense tornado damage happened shortly after touchdown, where over 50 healthy hardwood trees had snapped trunks with no foliage. In addition, an outbuilding lost part of a roof, and debris struck a residence causing cracked masonry and dented drywall on the inside of the structure. Maximum wind speeds of 100 mph were estimated in this area. The tornado continued eastward where more homes experienced minor roof damage, trees were uprooted, and a large outbuilding was nearly destroyed. After crossing Cave River Valley Rd and White River Rd, the tornado took out nearly 50 softwood trees. Farther east, over 100 hardwood and softwood trees were uprooted and snapped, and notable convergence was observed. After driving a 4X6 post through the roof of a home near Hunter Rd, the tornado continued east to Prowsville Ridge Rd, where an uptick to 90-95 mph intensity was noted. Another stand of nearly 50 hardwood trees were uprooted and snapped, along with significant damage to a porch and roof of a home. Tornadic damage ceased east of Cox Ferry Rd, however some instances of straight-line winds were noted all the way to Delaney Park Rd. It was also noted that straight-line winds were surveyed south of the tornado damage path, from Saltillo eastward to West Washington School Rd. Eyewitness accounts put this damage at slightly earlier times than when the tornado damage occurred. The straight-line wind damage ranged from 60-80 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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

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), 82 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 10:43 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.