EF0 tornado, Lochiel to Wolcott, Indiana, May 20, 2017

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

May 20, 2017

Touchdown

7:34 PM EDT (23:34 UTC)

Lifted

7:39 PM EDT (23:39 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

1.2 miles (2.0 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Benton and White counties

Touchdown point

40.657, -87.100

Lift-off point

40.660, -87.087

Record number

1705201734-01

2 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 50 mph.

• Approximate End point of tornado.
• Estimated start point from eyewitness reports. No damage was noted as it moved out of Benton County.

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

A tornado touched down in far eastern Benton County over open fields. The tornado produced minor damage after it passed into White County.

A warm front was located across portions of northwestern Indiana with unstable conditions south of the boundary. An area of thunderstorms developed just north of the front, with one thunderstorms showing supercell characteristics. This storm produced a brief tornado near the Benton/White county line.

Spotter reports as well as video footage confirm a tornado touched down near the Benton/White county line and tracked northeast into White county. The tornado remained over open fields in Benton County; however, some minor damage was noted on the northeast corner of a property on N CR 1200 E (east side of the Benton/White Co Line) south of W CR 600 S. A small boat on a trailer was flipped with a small tree being uprooted and small outbuilding destroyed. Wind speeds are estimated at 75 mph, but may have been higher as the strongest winds likely remained over the open fields.

Spotter reports as well as video footage confirm a tornado touched down near the Benton/White county line and tracked slowly east into White County. The tornado remained over open fields in Benton County and caused damage at a property on the eastern side of the White county line along North County Road 1200 East. A trailer was shoved 15 to 20 feet, along with a fishing boat being flipped roughly 30 feet from its starting location. A wooden outbuilding was destroyed along with a steel patio chair being thrown about a third of a mile. The tornado made a turn to the left near the end of its life, missing a wind turbine and eventually roping out. The tornado was on the ground for roughly 5 minutes with a maximum width of 50 yards and estimated wind speeds of around 75 mph. The tornado was on the ground for roughly three quarters of a mile from start to finish, with a tenth of a mile taking place in Benton county.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

21 minutes of warning. NWS LOT issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:13 UTC, 21 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:45 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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:01 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 Indianapolis radar (KIND), 126 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:34 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

3 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.