EF0 tornado, Lexington, Indiana, October 15, 2021

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

October 15, 2021

Touchdown

10:40 PM EDT (02:40 UTC)

Lifted

10:41 PM EDT (02:41 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.6 miles (1.0 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Scott County

Touchdown point

38.649, -85.635

Lift-off point

38.653, -85.625

Record number

2110152040-01

During the night, an area of thunderstorms ahead of a cold front, worked its way east through southern Indiana. The environment became more stable and only marginal shear remained. The environment was looking less favorable for severe weather, but a storm on the leading edge of a storm cluster generated its own shear between the northern edge of outflow dominant storms to the south and the environmental winds ahead of the storm. This resulted in a series of isolated quick spin-up type tornadoes that caused isolated damage in Washington and Scott Counties.

The National Weather Service in Louisville conducted a storm damage survey across Scott county, Indiana. The survey team found damage consistent with 80 mph winds in Lexington, Indiana. The tornado began at the Lexington cemetery and continued all the way to the Lexington fire and rescue. The tornado uprooted, twisted, and snapped numerous trees at the cemetery with the trees falling in a northerly, northeasterly, southeasterly, and southwesterly direction. This is where the widest part of the tornado was observed with approximately a 75 yard width.||Several trees were snapped along Charlestown Road with more significant damage along South Stuard Street. A couple of homes had shingle damage and loose items such as gas cans and garden decorations that were thrown 50 yards.||Power crews were working feverishly to restore power all along South Mulberry Street, where trees were thrown in multiple directions and across power lines. Power company workers said that several of the power poles were snapped or cracked.||The tornado continued along South Cherry St. with a very narrow path of only 40 to 50 yards, and lifted around the Lexington Fire and Rescue. Several witnesses told us that they heard windows being opened up and a distinct roar in the air.

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.

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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 00:52 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 Louisville radar (KLVX), 80 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:40 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

11 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.