EF0 tornado, Bear Branch to Rising Sun, Indiana, April 8, 2020

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

April 8, 2020

Touchdown

10:13 PM EDT (02:13 UTC)

Lifted

10:17 PM EDT (02:17 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

5.7 miles (9.2 km)

Path width

450 yards (411 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

County

Ohio County

Touchdown point

38.962, -85.043

Lift-off point

38.938, -84.941

Record number

2004082013-02

4 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ILN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 86 mph.

• Cluster of damage just east of Warsaw - in 500-800 block of US 42 East. Barns, Front porch pillars of old home (owner acknowledged not well maintained), roof and siding damage.

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

Thunderstorms developed ahead of an advancing cold front which crossed east through the region.

The tornado briefly touched down in far southwest Ohio County, about 5 miles east-southeast of Cross Plains, in the 1600 block of Aberdeen Road. The tornado destroyed a barn and produced siding and roof damage, as well as rolling 2 recreational vehicles and toppling trees. ||Based on the degree of damage, the tornado produced winds of around 70 mph.

The tornado first touched down along Milton Bear Branch Road in western Ohio County. The tornado traveled east southeast until it lifted near the 6000 block of Palmer Road. There were numerous occurrences of damage to roofs, siding, barns and trees. Damage of this nature was consistent with an EF0 tornado, with winds topping out at about 70 to 75 mph.

The tornado first touched down along the 7300 block of Salem Ridge Road and tracked 5.25 miles to the east, before lifting near Rising Sun. Damage to roofs, siding, power poles and trees occurred, with damage becoming more diffuse and sparse as the storm headed east.

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

0 minutes of warning. NWS ILN issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:13 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:31 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 23:25 UTC and running to 03:41 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:04 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.

Cincinnati / N Kentucky Intl (CVG), 30 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Cincinnati radar (KILN), 114 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:13 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 2020 tornado in IndianaEvery tornado in Indiana since 1950Warnings in force in Indiana nowThe forecast where you are

24 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.