EF3 tornado, Mt Vernon Arpt to Oliver, Indiana, July 9, 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 mph

   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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3

Date

July 9, 2024

Touchdown

4:18 PM CDT (21:18 UTC)

Lifted

4:28 PM CDT (21:28 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

5.8 miles (9.4 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$1.1 million

County

Posey County

Touchdown point

37.930, -87.869

Lift-off point

38.014, -87.857

Record number

2407091518-01

28 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS PAH, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 138 mph.

• 2 houses and farm out buildings. Looks to be centered on them. 50-100 yds west of my poibt
• Beginning of second SW IN path.
• Tree grove southwest 300 yds
• Tornado damage gone at this point

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

The remnants of Hurricane Beryl tracked north-northeastward to the Quad State region on the 9th, with the center of circulation following near the Lower Ohio River. The bulk of the stratiform precipitation was northwest of the Quad State, keeping flooding issues from developing. On the eastern flank of the storm, supercellular structure developed on the north end of the lakes in Kentucky, then tracked northeastward, crossing into Southwest Indiana at Mount Vernon after producing two tornadoes in Union County, Kentucky. ||The first SW Indiana tornado rapidly strengthened into an EF-3 as it damaged a large Kenco facility. The tornado overturned train cars and trailers near Old Hwy 62 as it departed from Mount Vernon, causing tree damage further north. This was the first EF-3 tornado in the NWS Paducah County Warning Area (CWA) in July, with records going back to 1950. The tornado cycled multiple times in Southwest Indiana, with tornado paths beginning near Springfield (an EF-1), and again north of Poseyville (an EF-2). For the latter, the damage path broadened as it approached Johnson and leveled several structures. The Johnson tornado narrowly missed the KVWX radar, crossing 1.5 miles to the west. One last brief EF-1 tornado formed on the west side of Patoka from the primary cell. A cluster of storms further east produced a brief EF-1 tornado south of Francisco. The 7 tornadoes from this day (5 in Indiana, 2 in Kentucky) were a single day record for July tornadoes in the NWS Paducah CWA.||Effective bulk shear was near 50 kts when the tornadoes developed, while SRH was 300 m2/s2, and the supercell composite parameter was 8 for the Mount Vernon tornado and lower for subsequent tornadoes. MLCAPE was 500-1000 J/kg (higher southeast of the supercell).

The long track cell entering from Northwest Kentucky produced its first Southwest Indiana tornado on the afternoon of July 9th with an EF-3 tornado. Tree debris and crops flattened in a convergent pattern occurred north of Port Rd, just south of the Kenco facility. The tornado intensified quickly with the Kenco facility the EF-3 damage point, undergoing removal of roughly half the roof and the collapse of several large segments of outer walls. The tornado continued northward, overturning semi trailers and train cars near Old Hwy 62. A manufactured home had its roof blown off and walls collapse near Seibert Ln. Damage to roofs of homes and farm buildings occurred on Nation Rd just west of Breeze Rd. Primarily tree damage occurred for the remainder of the path, while a shed door was pushed in on Copperline Rd. The tornado lifted north of Johnson Rd. Peak estimated winds for this tornado were 140 mph.

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

32 minutes of warning. NWS PAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:46 UTC, 32 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:11 UTC and running to 00:25 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. The outlook in force was issued at 19:50 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 Evansville,IN radar (KVWX), 34 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:19 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

10 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.