Tornadoes · United States · Indiana · 2021

EF0 tornado, Chrisney, Indiana, June 8, 2021

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Spencer County on June 8, 2021, touching down at 1:42 PM CDT and reaching 15 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
June 8, 2021
Touchdown
1:42 PM CDT (18:42 UTC)
Lifted
1:43 PM CDT (18:43 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
15 yards (14 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Spencer County
Touchdown point
38.036, -87.049
Lift-off point
38.038, -87.047
Record number
2106081242-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A few small tornadoes occurred in association with a closed 500 mb low over Missouri. Isolated to scattered thunderstorms developed during the heat of the day in deep southwest flow ahead of the closed low.

A member of the public videotaped a rope-like funnel cloud develop twice in open farmland near the intersection of County Road 1000 North and old Highway 231. A brief touchdown occurred, but no damage was reported. Peak winds were estimated near 65 mph.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
00:21 UTC01:00 UTCTornado WarningPAH

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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:54 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.

Nashville Metro, TN (KBNA), 12:00Z

6.7 hours before the tornado, 216 km from the path. June 8, 2021.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Nashville Metro, TN at 12:00Z on 2021-06-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 123 joules per kilogram, CIN -67, lifted condensation level 833 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, Nashville Metro, TN at 12:00Z on 2021-06-08The 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 -20 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 15 knots.193958Sfc1 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
123 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-67 J/kg
Surface CAPE
269 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
833 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-20 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-32 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Nashville Metro, TN (KBNA), 00:00Z

5.3 hours after it, 216 km from the path. June 9, 2021.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Nashville Metro, TN at 00:00Z on 2021-06-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 356 joules per kilogram, CIN -8, lifted condensation level 1123 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, Nashville Metro, TN at 00:00Z on 2021-06-09The 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 65 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 16 knots.193958Sfc1 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
356 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-8 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1432 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1123 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
65 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
140 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Evansville,IN radar (KVWX), 64 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:39 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
18:42 UTCTORNADO2 Nnw ChrisneySpencer, INOBSERVER WAS LOOKING NORTH FROM AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVE AND NOTED THE TORNADO FORMED TWICE. A BRIEF TOUCHDOWN OCCURRED, BUT NO DAMAGE REPORTED. ESTIMATED EF0 WITH WINDS APPROXIMATELY 65 MPH. PATH LENGTH ESTIMATED LESS T

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2021 tornado in IndianaEvery tornado in Indiana since 1950Warnings in force in Indiana nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 8, 2021

9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 89:11 AM CDTEF0Smith, TX1.640$5,000
June 810:02 AM CDTEF0Cherokee, TX0.320$1,000
June 810:23 AM CDTEF0Cherokee, TX0.120$5,000
June 82:26 PM CDTEF0Lee, MS0.550$5,000
June 82:28 PM CDTEF0Lee, MS0.450$50,000
June 82:42 PM CDTEF0Lee, MS0.450$10,000
June 85:25 PM CDTEF0Gibson, IN1.3601$20,000
June 87:12 PM EDTEF1Pike, IN2.530$3,000
June 86:18 PM MDTEF0Corson, SD0.210

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.