EF1 tornado, (Gyy) Gary Airport, Indiana, February 27, 2024

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, 2024

Touchdown

9:15 PM CST (03:15 UTC)

Lifted

9:18 PM CST (03:18 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

2.2 miles (3.5 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Lake County

Touchdown point

41.635, -87.430

Lift-off point

41.636, -87.390

Record number

2402272115-01

6 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LOT, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 90 mph.

• Beavers chewed a lot of the base of both trees, though the middles are clearly snapped.
• Pole snapped at base and on top, signs of rot.
• Utility crews report new power poles snapped in general vicinity. Surveyor was unable to access the damage.
• Three power poles damaged. Two were snapped and one was leaning. One of the snapped power poles had clear signs of rot. Tree debris was also embedded in a chain link fence.

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

Following summer-like, record warmth, severe thunderstorms developed in the late afternoon of February 27th over northwest Illinois and spread east through the evening across the Chicago metro area. One tornado touched down in Indiana on the north side of Gary. There were 11 tornadoes in total across the NWS Chicago area of responsibility, which is the most in a February event since official NWS tornado records began in 1950.

A tornado touched down near Cline Avenue and Industrial Highway just north of Gary Airport. The tornado moved eastward through a wooded industrial area and damaged multiple power poles, including snapping several that were relatively new. Snapped tree limbs were also observed along the path of the tornado. The tornado then turned east-northeast and moved offshore onto Lake Michigan.

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

13 minutes of warning. NWS LOT issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:02 UTC, 13 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:54 UTC and running to 04:00 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 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 00:55 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.

Gary Regional (GYY), 2 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Chicago radar (KLOT), 56 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:16 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 2024 tornado in IndianaEvery tornado in Indiana since 1950Warnings in force in Indiana nowThe forecast where you are

12 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.