EF0 tornado, Bennettsville, Indiana, May 7, 2024

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   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 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

EF0

Date

May 7, 2024

Touchdown

9:23 PM EDT (01:23 UTC)

Lifted

9:26 PM EDT (01:26 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

1.2 miles (1.9 km)

Path width

60 yards (55 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Clark County

Touchdown point

38.437, -85.789

Lift-off point

38.447, -85.771

Record number

2405071923-01

7 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LMK, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EFU. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.

• Tornado photographed in open field.

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

During the evening and early overnight hours on May 7th and 8th, a cold front moved eastward from the mid Mississippi Valley into the Ohio Valley. Ample instability was present in the warm sector ahead of the front, though poor mid-level lapse rates initially hindered storm development across the region. Just before sunset, a few discrete cells began to develop along the Ohio River in southern Indiana, quickly gaining supercell characteristics in the presence of strong deep-layer shear. While weak mid-level lapse rates prevented explosive growth of these cells, they were strong enough to produce two weak tornadoes in southern Indiana. The tornadic cells also produced minor straight-line wind damage after the tornado lifted. Sporadic straight-line wind damage was also observed with another wave of storms later during the early morning hours of May 8th.

The National Weather Service in Louisville confirmed an EF0|tornado in Perry Crossing (near Sellersburg) in Central Clark|County Indiana. The tornado touched down in a field east of|Covered Bridge Golf Club, and crossed Muddy Fork before crossing|Columbus Mann Road near Pinta Place. Video photography and eye |witnesses saw 2 small tornado funnels from the supercell. ||The first damage point was to three homes on Pinta Place. The|homes had shingle and roofing material loss, along with torn |gutters and awning damage. A couple of Bradford pear trees were |displaced to the north. Wind speeds were between 80 and 85 mph |with a width of 60 yards. ||The tornado appeared to lift over a small lake before|touching down again at the intersection of Lumberfield Lane and|New Perry Lane. There was damage to 3 homes with shingle and|roofing material loss. One home in particular had insulation and|mud splatter thrown around all 4 sides of the house. Witnesses|saw 2 small funnels and many had their ears popping. Wind speeds|were 85 mph with a width of 60 yards. Corn stalks from the|original touch down point was thrown to this location. ||Just before the house on Lumberfield, a wooden fence was pulled|apart and knocked over. Either a board from that fence or one |from a loosely connected outbuilding board was thrown through the |wall of the house near the bathroom window. ||The tornado lifted just beyond the house on the east side of|Lumberfield lane, but debris from the houses landed into homes |on Meriwether Drive. This included shingles, particle board and |one impressive 2x4 impalement into the side of the house about 9 |feet off the ground.

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

8 minutes of warning. NWS LMK issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:15 UTC, 8 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:34 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 00:01 UTC and running to 07:00 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 01:11 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 Louisville radar (KLVX), 54 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:23 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

52 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.