EF1 tornado, Leopold, Indiana, April 5, 2023

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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF1

Date

April 5, 2023

Touchdown

3:14 PM CDT (20:14 UTC)

Lifted

3:15 PM CDT (20:15 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.8 miles (1.2 km)

Path width

70 yards (64 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Perry County

Touchdown point

38.108, -86.588

Lift-off point

38.114, -86.576

Record number

2304051414-01

17 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LMK, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 95 mph.

• Tree was uprooted to the southeast
• Trunk snapped, tree laying to the southeast
• Trunk is snapped but it’s a small tree. Larger trees are still standing next to it.

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

During the afternoon and evening hours of April 5, a low pressure system, moving northeast from Minnesota into Ontario, dragged a trailing cold front through the Lower Ohio Valley. This produced a line of severe storms that moved west to east over southern Indiana, resulting in multiple reports of tree damage, structural damage, and one tornado in Perry County.

The National Weather Service Louisville confirmed an EF1 tornado|in Eastern Perry County Indiana, near Leopold, from severe storms|on Wednesday afternoon, April 5. The tornado touched down in a|hilly forested area, along Leopold Oriole Road, 0.2 miles north|of the Leopold town square. The twister started off as an EF0 80 |mph in the forested area with a few snapped and uprooted trees. |The tornado rapidly increased to a 95 mph EF1 striking a very well |built 45 by 125 barn with extra hurricane clips, nails and bolts. |The foundation of the barn through the roof bracing was one of the |best new built barns this survey team has ever seen. ||A large portion of the roof was thrown over 100 yards to the north |northeast to a easterly direction. There were numerous boards impaled |into the ground and some of the metal sheeting was thrown 200 yards, |wrapping around a large maple tree. NWS drone footage showed a few |more pieces of the roof were thrown into the neighbor's pond, which |is about 350 yards away. Residents at the home felt their house shake |for about 15 seconds and their ears were popping. ||Adjacent to the barn was a tractor tire that was moved 25 yards to the |northwest with no noticeable skid marks with the tire. The foundation |of the barn was pulled northeastward slightly, and a large pick up |trailer fully loaded with supplies in the barn moved about 6 inches. ||The drone showed a large area of snapped and uprooted trees just |northeast of the home in a forested area. The drone showed no damage |beyond that tree damage across a farmers field.

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.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 14:27 UTC and running to 21:00 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 19:43 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.

Hancock (KY8), 30 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Louisville radar (KLVX), 58 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:12 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 2023 tornado in IndianaEvery tornado in Indiana since 1950Warnings in force in Indiana nowThe forecast where you are

17 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.