Unrated tornado, Richland to Moscow, Indiana, May 7, 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 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. Unratedthis tornado

   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

Unrated

Date

May 7, 2024

Touchdown

7:47 PM EDT (23:47 UTC)

Lifted

7:53 PM EDT (23:53 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

0.8 miles (1.2 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Rush County

Touchdown point

39.513, -85.388

Lift-off point

39.516, -85.373

Record number

2405071747-01

2 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS IND, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 75 mph.

• Small and old utility poles down along SR244
• Location of tornado based on video. Drone footage IR shows circulation in vegetation stubble. No damage so ef0. 1.5 mile length estimated

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

At times robust south-southwesterly breezes brought unseasonably high dewpoints in the upper 60s and temperatures around 80 degrees, which led a favorable set-up for severe thunderstorms that also included high low-level helicity, and a 40-knot low-level jet stream ahead of an approaching cold front, all under adequate divergence aloft from the right exit region of a cyclonically curved jet streak.||Numerous rotating thunderstorms resulted through late day and evening hours, which produced widespread marginally severe hail across ten counties along and to the east-southeast of the Interstate 70 corridor, with strongest cells producing 1.50-1.75 inch hail and/or widely scattered wind damage from Clay County to Decatur County, as well as five weak tornadoes within Shelby, Rush and Decatur Counties. The tornadoes caused mainly tree damage and some minor structural damage. Several supercells actually tracked over the same areas where tornadoes occurred, which made video footage a key part of proper event verification. Some of the tornadoes may have actually had longer track lengths, but this could not be deciphered given the broad open farm fields. Witness reports indicated that some of the tornadoes were small, rope tornadoes that bounced across the landscape.||Less intense thunderstorms north of the Interstate 70 corridor produced small hail over a few zones, as well as a funnel cloud in Tipton County before an early evening cell downed a few trees in eastern Randolph County.

This first of five central Indiana tornadoes tracked to the east-northeast over rural southeastern Rush County fields, starting about midway between County Roads 250 East and 365 East, and ending about 0.2 miles east of County Road 365 East. A nearby resident filmed a clear video; only small stalks of old soybeans could be seen in a swirled pattern in the field where the video showed the vortex crossing County Road 365 East. Drone infrared imagery showed very evident swirl marks in the field along the track. The tornado had unknown wind speeds per no damage occurring.

This third of five central Indiana tornadoes tracked slightly north of east, from 0.6 miles north of Rush County's southwest corner to 0.4 miles west of the intersection of County Roads 1000 South and 500 West. ||Damage was mostly to trees and a couple barn roofs. The tornado touched down just northeast of the intersection of County Roads 1050 South and 1000 West, snapping several healthy softwood pine trees about 8-10 feet above ground, while nearby homes only sustained minor damage to siding; although a portion of a barn's metal roof was ripped back and blown off, thrown to the east-southeast. Northwest of the intersection of County Roads 875 West and 1050 South, several large tree branches were broken off by the northern edge of the tornado's vortex where a corn field met a wooded area. Towards the track's midpoint, a low-sloped barn roof, just west of South Degelow Road, had almost half of its metal ripped back, before further tree damage and a utility pole were downed at a homestead just west of County Road 775 West; a witness at this location saw the vortex before it became rain wrapped. Towards the end of the damage path, further minor tree damage with many downed tree limbs occurred along South River Road and the adjacent Flatrock River, before the tornado ended about 0.5 miles later while tracking along County Road 1000 South.||The parent supercell's rear flank downdraft inflow winds also approached 80 mph, as indicated by periphery damage about 0.25 miles south of the convergent tornadic damage at County Road 775 West, as well as at South River Road where the wide damage path included weak convergence through the wooded area where the tornado tracked. This was the longest-tracking and most destructive tornado of the episode in central Indiana, although all damage was EF0 intensity following the peak intensity of 110 mph winds (EF1) at the tornado's onset.

This fourth of five central Indiana tornadoes tracked to the east-northeast, from northeast of the intersection with South Prill Road and South Degelow Road to south-southwest of the intersection of South Prill Road and County Road 740 West. Despite tracking for only 850 feet, the circulation was strong enough to completely destroy a metal barn; although grain silos immediately west and a nearby home to the northwest were both untouched. The barn had rusted connections between the toe nail of frame and foundation. The barn's debris were thrown to the northeast, north and northwest before the tornado quickly dissipated in a field to the east. Peak winds 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 tornado watch, issued at 22:00 UTC and running to 03:39 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 19:45 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 Indianapolis radar (KIND), 80 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:45 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.