Tornadoes · United States · Indiana · 2018

EF0 tornado, Beaver City, Indiana, May 27, 2018

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Newton County on May 27, 2018, touching down at 6:58 PM CDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
May 27, 2018
Touchdown
6:58 PM CDT (23:58 UTC)
Lifted
6:59 PM CDT (23:59 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Newton County
Touchdown point
40.911, -87.345
Lift-off point
40.912, -87.343
Record number
1805271758-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A severe thunderstorm produce large hail and a brief land spout tornado during the evening of May 27th.

A brief and weak land spout tornado was observed. No damage was reported.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:54 UTC00:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLOT

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:59 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 air that afternoon

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.

Lincoln, IL (KILX), 12:00Z

12.0 hours before the tornado, 136 km from the path. May 27, 2018.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2018-05-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2208 joules per kilogram, CIN -73, lifted condensation level 1122 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2018-05-27The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 34 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 16 knots.1939Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
2208 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-73 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1169 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1122 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
34 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
100 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lincoln, IL (KILX), 00:00Z

0.0 hours before the tornado, 136 km from the path. May 28, 2018.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2018-05-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1210 joules per kilogram, CIN -36, lifted condensation level 2274 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2018-05-28The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 67 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 14 knots.1939Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
1210 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-36 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3649 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2274 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
67 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
88 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
2.6
0-3 km lapse rate
7.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Rensselaer (RZL), 14 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
22:15 UTC9524.80° 0 kt1010.8
22:35 UTC952340° 6 kt1010.8
22:55 UTC9528.4130° 10 kt1011.2
23:15 UTC93.235.6170° 8 kt1011.2
23:35 UTC91.435.6170° 7 kt1011.5
23:55 UTC91.437.4170° 6 kt1011.5
00:15 UTC89.641180° 3 kt1011.9
00:35 UTC87.844.6240° 11 kt1012.2
00:55 UTC84.246.4220° 5 kt1012.2
01:15 UTC84.244.6220° 5 kt1012.2
01:35 UTC82.446.40° 0 kt1012.2
01:55 UTC80.650240° 3 kt1012.5

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The radar

The Chicago radar (KLOT), 99 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:59 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
23:58 UTCTORNADO2 Ene Beaver CityNewton, INSEVERAL REPORTS OF A TORNADO, CONFIRMED BRIEF LANDSPOUT IN OPEN FIELD WITH PHOTOS. TIME ESTIMATED BASED ON RADAR.
00:07 UTCHAIL 1.753 Ene Beaver CityNewton, IN

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2018 tornado in IndianaEvery tornado in Indiana since 1950Warnings in force in Indiana nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 27, 2018

7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 274:04 PM EDTEF0Martin, FL0.110$200
May 272:43 PM MDTUnratedLaramie, WY7.550
May 273:20 PM MDTEF2Laramie, WY1.0500
May 274:30 PM CDTEF0Cumberland, IL0.825
May 274:05 PM MDTUnratedPlatte, WY2.650
May 274:21 PM MDTUnratedLaramie, WY0.6100
May 277:43 PM MDTEF0Kit Carson, CO1.5200

What this means

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.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.