EF1 tornado, Mc Cordsville to Eden, Indiana, February 27, 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

February 27, 2023

Touchdown

1:37 PM EST (18:37 UTC)

Lifted

1:39 PM EST (18:39 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.3 miles (0.5 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

County

Hancock County

Touchdown point

39.942, -85.769

Lift-off point

39.944, -85.764

Record number

2302271237-01

23 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS IND, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 105 mph.

• Trees snapped; Ware roof section peeled and thrown several hundred yards; debris in field and trees.
• Downstream debris thrown from Red Barn
• Large barn blow off foundation. Large cracks in foundation. Barn tilting.
• Garage door open. Winds entering building blew out wall panels.

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

A potent cyclone crossed northern Illinois, bringing central Indiana into its warm sector. This allowed very strong vertical wind shear courtesy of the system's strong low-level jet stream to combine with the warm sector's adequate instability, producing several severe thunderstorms. Near the greatest shear and instability, small supercell thunderstorms produced severe straight line winds, with one supercell spawning two EF-1 tornadoes in Hancock County.

This first tornado touched down approximately 3 miles south-southeast of McCordsville, damaging the roof of a warehouse. The tornado remained on the ground approximately 3.34 miles striking a farm and destroying a farm outbuilding, damaging a large and functioning historic barn (sliding it slightly off its foundation) and snapping numerous trees. The tornado then continued to the northeast, possibly skipping for the last 1.9 miles of its path, crossing Indiana State Route 234 and North Fortville Pike where it blew over a semi truck before ending. This tornado was on the ground for approximately 6 minutes with estimated peak winds of 110 mph.

The second tornado touched down approximately 2 miles east-southeast of Ingalls. This tornado was on the ground for about 2 minutes, and traveled approximately 0.3 miles, with estimated peak winds of 100 mph. The tornado inflicted major damaged to a metal barn, removing the roof and exterior walls. Downwind of the barn, 2x4 beams were driven into the ground at different angles. Several trees were damaged, either being snapped or blown over and uprooted.

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

5 minutes of warning. NWS IND issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:32 UTC, 5 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 16:06 UTC and running to 19:35 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:26 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 Indianapolis radar (KIND), 51 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:35 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

15 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.