EF2 tornado, Westchester to Bellfountain, Indiana, June 18, 2021

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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

June 18, 2021

Touchdown

3:50 PM EDT (19:50 UTC)

Lifted

4:07 PM EDT (20:07 UTC)

On the ground

17 minutes

Path length

5.4 miles (8.7 km)

Path width

500 yards (457 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Jay County

Touchdown point

40.521, -84.918

Lift-off point

40.465, -84.848

Record number

2106181350-01

18 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS IWX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 130 mph.

• Tornado appears start one half north of 500n and one half mile west of 350e in grove of trees
• Estimated 250yds wide here. this house looks to be on south sife of circulation.
• Multiple farm buildings destroyed. large debris field here extending downstream.
• Multiple farm buildings destroyed. several trees snapped. house relatively unscathed. 300yds wide here

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

Thunderstorms in the afternoon developed as an MCV moved into the area. This resulted d an EF2 tornado in Jay county and large hail.

A tornado developed approximately 3 miles southeast of Bryant Indiana around 350 PM EDT and rapidly strengthened to EF-2 category as the tornado tracked east-southeast, damaging or destroying several rural homes and farmsteads and felled a 100 foot communications tower. The tornado then weakened briefly as the parent storm turned hard right and reintensified into a multi-vortex, 500 yard wide EF-2 tornado as it tracked south-southeast, hitting several more farmsteads with damaged homes and destroyed farm buildings and killing several cattle. The parent storm and tornado both weakened thereafter with the tornado finally lifting/dissipating in an open field approximately 8 miles southeast of Bryant Indiana. Estimated peak winds of 130 mph.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

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 16:37 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 Northern Indiana radar (KIWX), 118 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:50 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 2021 tornado in IndianaEvery tornado in Indiana since 1950Warnings in force in Indiana nowThe forecast where you are

7 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.