EF1 tornado, Dogwood, Indiana, December 31, 2018

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

December 31, 2018

Touchdown

3:38 PM EST (20:38 UTC)

Lifted

3:41 PM EST (20:41 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

2.2 miles (3.5 km)

Path width

140 yards (128 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$20,000

County

Harrison County

Touchdown point

38.093, -86.087

Lift-off point

38.100, -86.047

Record number

1812311438-01

13 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LMK, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.

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

A line of strong to severe thunderstorms rolled through southern Indiana and central Kentucky during the afternoon hours of December 31, 2018. In addition to strong straight line wind gusts that caused sporadic tree damage in the region, a brief, small EF-1 tornado touched down in Harrison County, Indiana. It caused structural damage to several buildings, as well as uprooting and snapping trees.

A National Weather Service damage survey team determined an intermittent skipping tornado varying in width, size and speed had a maximum wind speed of 100 mph along with a max width of 140 yards.||The tornado initially touched down at 7231 IN-337. At this location, a heavy metal chain fence weighing several hundred pounds was picked up and thrown 30 yards into the back of the house causing significant damage to the house. A chicken house weighing hundreds of pounds was rolled over and moved several feet. A purple Martin house was bent over 60 degrees facing east. Shingles and yard decorations were thrown in various directions east of the house along with driveway gravel thrown in every direction. A swing set was thrown from the back of the house to the front. Throughout the property there were twisted and uprooted trees.||Just before crossing the highway, the tornado increased from 75 yards to 140 yards in width and picked up hundreds of cornstalks tossing them in various directions across the road up to 300 yards away. Across the street at 7768 IN-337 there was significant cedar tree damage along with a 30 by 40 foot barn that was destroyed. The tornado twisted and snapped several cedar trees before going across the farmers field. The tornado narrowed and went to about 50 yards in width.||At 4368 Rogers Campground Road there were several trees twisted and snapped. One single-wide mobile home had siding panels blown out in several spots. An older, well-built barn with sturdy cedar poles sustained significant side panel damage. The metal sheeting was thrown in a northwesterly to northeasterly direction. One 2x4 wood pole was embedded in the ground. The tornado was very narrow along Rogers Campground Road, likely no more than 50 yards wide.

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

26 minutes of warning. NWS LMK issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:12 UTC, 26 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:45 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 18:48 UTC and running to 20:50 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:39 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), 17 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:40 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 2018 tornado in IndianaEvery tornado in Indiana since 1950Warnings in force in Indiana nowThe forecast where you are

2 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.