Tornadoes · United States · Indiana · 2020

EF0 tornado, Alford, Indiana, July 7, 2020

This EF0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Pike County on July 7, 2020, touching down at 4:51 PM EDT and reaching 30 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
July 7, 2020
Touchdown
4:51 PM EDT (20:51 UTC)
Lifted
4:52 PM EDT (20:52 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Pike County
Touchdown point
38.470, -87.220
Lift-off point
38.471, -87.211
Record number
2007071451-01

The damage survey

2 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS PAH, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 70 mph.

  • No damage was reported for this LANDSPOUT WITH VIDEO/PICTURE EVIDENCE RELAYED TO US ON FACEBOOK. LOCATION APPOXIMATED BY OBSERVER ABOUT 1 MILE SOUTH OF HWY 356 NEAR COUNTY ROAD 300 E.

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

What the Weather Service recorded

A weak landspout tornado occurred in association with a light rain shower. Isolated convection formed under a weak trough in the mid levels of the atmosphere extending from the central Great Lakes to the Tennessee Valley. Low level lapse rates were steep, averaging near 8 degrees Celsius per kilometer in the lowest 3 km.

A landspout tornado was documented, with pictures and video posted on social media. The narrow rope-like funnel was associated with a cumulus cloud containing little if any precipitation. The location was approximated by the observer about one mile south of Highway 356 near County Road 300 E. 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.

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 19:57 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

8.9 hours before the tornado, 222 km from the path. July 7, 2020.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2020-07-07Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1106 joules per kilogram, CIN -49, lifted condensation level 1310 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 2020-07-07The 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 12 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 18 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
1106 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-49 J/kg
Surface CAPE
240 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1310 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
3 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
12 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-24 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lincoln, IL (KILX), 00:00Z

3.1 hours after it, 222 km from the path. July 8, 2020.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2020-07-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1879 joules per kilogram, CIN -4, lifted condensation level 1448 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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 2020-07-08The 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 7 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 11 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
1879 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-4 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2726 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1448 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
2 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
7 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-5 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
8.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Daviess City (DCY), 27 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
18:55 UTC89.871.20° 0 kt1015.2
19:15 UTC90.771.40° 0 kt1014.9
19:35 UTC90.569.40° 0 kt1014.6
19:55 UTC
20:15 UTC
20:35 UTC
20:55 UTC89.272.710° 5 kt1013.9
21:15 UTC9073.230° 4 kt1013.5
21:35 UTC89.67210° 3 kt1013.5
21:55 UTC89.673.410° 3 kt1013.5
22:15 UTC89.872350° 3 kt1013.5
22:35 UTC89.871.430° 3 kt1013.2

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

The radar

The Evansville,IN radar (KVWX), 50 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:49 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
20:51 UTCTORNADO4 Ese PetersburgPike, INLANDSPOUT WITH VIDEO/PICTURE EVIDENCE RELAYED TO US ON FACEBOOK. LOCATION APPOXIMATED BY OBSERVER ABOUT 1 MILE SOUTH OF HWY 356 NEAR COUNTY ROAD 300 E.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2020 tornado in IndianaEvery tornado in Indiana since 1950Warnings in force in Indiana nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of July 7, 2020

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 73:58 PM MDTEF0Petroleum, MT0.120
July 74:10 PM MDTEF0Petroleum, MT0.150
July 711:30 PM CDTEF1Oliver, ND0.250$10,000

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.