Tornadoes · United States · Indiana · 2024

EF1 tornado, LaPorte County, Indiana, July 15, 2024

This EF1 tornado ran 3.2 miles across LaPorte County on July 15, 2024, touching down at 10:32 PM CDT and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $100,000 of property damage.

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 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.

The record

Rating
EF1
Date
July 15, 2024
Touchdown
10:32 PM CDT (03:32 UTC)
Lifted
10:38 PM CDT (03:38 UTC)
On the ground
6 minutes
Path length
3.2 miles (5.2 km)
Path width
75 yards (69 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$100,000
County
LaPorte County
Touchdown point
41.643, -86.871
Lift-off point
41.648, -86.810
Record number
2407152132-01

The damage survey

40 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS IWX and NWS LOT, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.

  • Several small branches down
  • Medium to large branches down
  • Several medium to large branches down
  • Lots of small branches down

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

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.

Lincoln, IL (KILX), 00:00Z

3.5 hours before the tornado, 223 km from the path. July 16, 2024.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2024-07-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 3169 joules per kilogram, CIN -39, lifted condensation level 1385 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, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2024-07-16The 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 161 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 knots.1939Sfc1 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
3169 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-39 J/kg
Surface CAPE
5530 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1385 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
161 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
237 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.7
Supercell composite
22.3
0-3 km lapse rate
6.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lincoln, IL (KILX), 12:00Z

8.5 hours after it, 223 km from the path. July 16, 2024.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2024-07-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 675 joules per kilogram, CIN -163, lifted condensation level 819 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, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2024-07-16The 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 179 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 42 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
675 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-163 J/kg
Surface CAPE
14 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
819 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
179 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
143 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
2.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Michigan City (MGC), 7 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
00:00 UTC

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

The radar

The Northern Indiana radar (KIWX), 100 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:28 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2024 tornado in IndianaEvery tornado in Indiana since 1950Warnings in force in Indiana nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of July 15, 2024

61 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 157:14 AM CDTEF0Chippewa, MN2.225
July 153:50 PM EDTEF0Genesee, NY0.875
July 154:48 PM EDTEF0Ontario, NY0.875
July 156:25 PM EDTEF0Cortland, NY7.5175$37,000
July 155:37 PM CDTEF1Polk, IA6.9300$500,000
July 156:54 PM EDTEF1Chenango, NY8.7250$120,000
July 156:14 PM CDTEF1Grant, WI0.330$35,000
July 156:18 PM CDTEF0Jones, IA1.550
July 156:40 PM CDTEF1Jo Daviess, IL29.8100
July 156:48 PM CDTEF1Jo Daviess, IL8.150
July 156:50 PM CDTEF2Jo Daviess, IL15.4150
July 157:02 PM CDTEF0Muscatine, IA to IL3.050
July 157:17 PM CDTEF1Rock Island, IL24.7100
July 157:19 PM CDTEF1Scott, IA to IL8.0100
July 157:26 PM CDTUnratedStephenson, IL1.010
July 157:26 PM CDTEF0Rock, WI1.250
July 157:44 PM CDTEF0Ogle, IL5.3200
July 157:58 PM CDTEF0Ogle, IL1.7150
July 157:58 PM CDTEF0Winnebago, IL1.2100
July 158:01 PM CDTEF0Winnebago, IL0.225
July 158:02 PM CDTEF1Henry, IL5.2200$100,000
July 158:05 PM CDTEF0Ogle, IL2.2150
July 158:07 PM CDTEF1Knox, IL1.3150
July 158:07 PM CDTEF1Henry, IL1.750$50,000
July 158:15 PM CDTEF0Peoria, IL4.380
July 158:21 PM CDTEF1Peoria, IL2.4150
July 158:25 PM CDTEF0Peoria, IL2.5100
July 158:36 PM CDTEF1Woodford, IL0.4100
July 158:38 PM CDTEF0Woodford, IL1.480
July 158:38 PM CDTUnratedDeKalb, IL1.850
July 158:39 PM CDTEF1Woodford, IL1.2100
July 158:39 PM CDTEF1Tazewell, IL12.2100
July 158:49 PM CDTEF1Kane, IL8.4300
July 158:51 PM CDTUnratedTazewell, IL0.980
July 158:52 PM CDTEF0Kane, IL10.1250
July 158:55 PM CDTEF1Kendall, IL19.2200
July 158:55 PM CDTEF0Woodford, IL3.830
July 159:06 PM CDTEF1Kendall, IL19.52502
July 159:09 PM CDTEF2Grundy, IL34.63252
July 159:10 PM CDTEF0Kendall, IL17.0300
July 159:23 PM CDTEF0DuPage, IL3.1150
July 159:29 PM CDTEF0DuPage, IL0.850
July 159:33 PM CDTEF0Will, IL2.9300
July 159:34 PM CDTEF0DuPage, IL4.1250
July 159:35 PM CDTEF0Kankakee, IL12.3275
July 159:36 PM CDTEF0Cook, IL1.2175
July 159:37 PM CDTEF1Cook, IL2.175
July 159:41 PM CDTEF0Will, IL6.4100
July 159:41 PM CDTEF0Cook, IL5.7300
July 159:43 PM CDTEF1Cook, IL5.5250
July 159:43 PM CDTEF0Cook, IL0.485
July 159:45 PM CDTEF0Cook, IL0.4125
July 159:47 PM CDTEF1Cook, IL3.2150
July 159:47 PM CDTEF1Cook, IL3.1400
July 159:50 PM CDTEF0Cook, IL1.4150
July 159:51 PM CDTEF1Kankakee, IL2.6100
July 159:52 PM CDTEF1Lake, IL to IN29.1300
July 159:58 PM CDTEF0Lake, IN2.4100
July 1510:02 PM CDTEF0Lake, IN16.4100
July 1512:09 AM EDTEF0Marshall, IN0.775$20,000

All 62 of them

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.