EF1 tornado, Erskin to Dayville, Indiana, July 30, 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

July 30, 2024

Touchdown

6:30 PM CDT (23:30 UTC)

Lifted

6:42 PM CDT (23:42 UTC)

On the ground

12 minutes

Path length

11.0 miles (17.7 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$385,000

Crop damage

$13,000

Counties

Vanderburgh and Warrick counties

Touchdown point

38.050, -87.509

Lift-off point

37.979, -87.328

Record number

2407301730-01

33 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS PAH, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.

• There were four total luminary poles that were damaged to bent over halfway up and to collapse at the base
• Couple of trees with large branches broken in the vicinity
• It looks like the corn may have been laid over right around here, but drone footage may have to be used to place a point along the path
• Damage the corn crops just south east of the damaged barn

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

A particularly explosive storm environment developed on the afternoon of the 30th. MLCAPE values rose to 3500 J/kg, 0-3 km CAPE of 100-150 J/kg, effective bulk shear of 40 kts, and 0-3 km shear of 20-30 kts. Temperatures rose to the low 90s with dew points in the upper 70s to near 80, yielding heat index values near 110. For Southwest Indiana, the storms moved through late afternoon towards sunset. A more complex setup occurred relative to Illinois and Kentucky. A robust cluster of storms moved southeastward through Gibson County towards Evansville, bringing down trees and powerlines in Patoka and Princeton while damaging corn. A semi truck was overturned at the Toyota plant south of Princeton. Meanwhile, a north-south line of storms moving into Posey County accelerated eastward into Evansville with widespread reports of wind damage in Vanderburgh County. Near Melody Hill, just east of the airport, the intersecting boundary with these two clusters spun up an EF-1 tornado that tracked southeastward into Warrick County lifting northeast of Newburgh. Straight-line wind damage occurred in Warrick County north and south of the tornado track. The following day, one person (65m) passed away due to a heart attack sustained while cleaning up tree debris in Newburgh.

An EF-1 tornado began just east of Evansville Regional Airport in the Melody Hill Community as intersecting boundaries met up with a surge in the storm line. After uprooting trees near the Oak Hill School, the tornado moved east-southeastward, damaging light fixtures and destroying a structure at the Goebel Soccer Complex. The tornado crossed I-69, eventually entering into Warrick County. Estimated peak winds for the Vanderburgh County portion of the tornado were 105 mph.

An EF-1 tornado that began just east of the Evansville Regional Airport tracked east-southeastward, crossing from Vanderburgh County to Warrick County. The tornado crossed several fields before reaching more populated neighborhoods from Bell Rd onward. The majority of the damage was caused by downed trees and large tree limbs. Several trees fell into homes causing damage. A few homes also suffered roof and gutter damage. There was very substantial tree damage along Telephone Rd to Fuquay Rd. The tornado eventually lifted between Wethers Rd and IN-61 in the Victoria Hills area. Estimated peak winds for the Warrick County portion, and the tornado as a whole, were 110 mph.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 21:17 UTC and running to 00:34 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:59 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.

Evansville (EVV), 10 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Evansville,IN radar (KVWX), 38 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:32 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

1 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.