EF3 Winchester tornado, Indiana and Ohio, March 14, 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

March 14, 2024

Touchdown

6:50 PM CDT (23:50 UTC)

Lifted

8:00 PM CDT (01:00 UTC)

On the ground

70 minutes

Path length

41.3 miles (66.5 km)

Path width

700 yards (640 m)

Deaths

1

Injuries

39

Property damage

$26 million

Counties

Randolph, Darke and Miami counties

Touchdown point

40.178, -85.125

Lift-off point

40.139, -84.353

Record number

2403141750-01

68 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS IND, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 120 mph.

• Uprooted and snapped trees. Roofing material off well built homes. Starting point for Winchester.
• Roof damage and windows blown out
• Center line. Few rotten trees down and garage door blown off
• Poles bent to north. Tornado reportedly was just south of this road through field.

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

Two rounds of thunderstorms in total brought severe weather to half of central Indiana's counties. During the late morning to early afternoon hours on the 14th, a decaying line of storms brought prolific small hail and isolated wind damage to much of the state.||Severe weather returned when early evening rotating supercells produced widespread large hail across north central Indiana, which gradually spread towards the southeast when a supercell tracking east of Muncie produced additional large hail, damaging winds, and two strong tornadoes. An EF2 impacted Selma in eastern Delaware County, before a long-track EF3 crossed much of Randolph County, with significant damage and one fatality in Winchester, before continuing into Ohio. The governor of Indiana signed an executive order declaring both Delaware and Randolph Counties disaster zones.

Thunderstorms developed in an unseasonably warm and humid airmass ahead of an approaching cold front.

The Selma tornado lifted in the open area and fields between|eastern Delaware county to near Farmland before redeveloping. As it|moved through Rural Randolph county it bent or snapped numerous|utility poles along State Road 32. Also, a large blade on one of|the wind turbines in the area was badly damaged.||As the tornado entered Winchester, it severely damaged many homes|and snapped and uprooted trees in a west-to-east path through|Winchester. There was clear evidence of the tornado`s rotational|circulation, with uprooted trees pointed to the east on the|immediate south side of the tornado, and to the northwest on the|immediate north side of the tornado. The damage pattern also|indicated the possibility of small multiple vortices rotating|around the main vortex. In the residential core of the town, the|maximum intensity of the tornado was estimated around 130 mph or|high-end EF2 strength.||The greatest damage in Winchester occurred on the east side of|town at the Taco Bell, as the anchored building was destroyed, as|was a church immediately east of the restaurant. In this|concentrated area, the NWS Team estimated maximum winds of 155-165|mph, or high- end EF3 damage. Maximum path width in Winchester|was estimated at up to 0.4 mile or 700 yards.||Farther east across more rural eastern Randolph County, a few|structures had significant damage, debris was blown in fields,|many trees were snapped, and a silo was damaged, all indicative of|EF2 maximum damage in the 115-125 mph range.||The tornado continued to the Indiana-Ohio state line, with less|intense damage primarily to trees before crossing into Ohio.

The tornado developed at 1850EST in Randolph County, Indiana, just south of Farmland. The tornado traveled east across Randolph County, Indiana, and Darke County, Ohio, and entered Miami County at 1952EST, along State Route 721, just north of Grandview Drive. The tornado reached EF-2 intensity with winds of up to 120 mph near the intersection of Klinger and Rangeline Roads. Two homes had a significant amount of roof and some external wall removal while other nearby properties had outbuildings that were severely damaged.||The last damage was noted along State Route 48 near the intersection with Klinger Road. The tornado is believed to have dissipated near this location at 2000EST.

The deaths

1 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

11 minutes of warning. NWS IND issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:39 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:17 UTC and running to 01:09 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 19:37 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 Cincinnati radar (KILN), 114 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:47 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

24 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.