EF0 tornado, Cementville to Gibson, Indiana, September 24, 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

September 24, 2024

Touchdown

1:40 PM EDT (17:40 UTC)

Lifted

1:46 PM EDT (17:46 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

3.9 miles (6.2 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Clark County

Touchdown point

38.349, -85.751

Lift-off point

38.382, -85.693

Record number

2409241140-01

11 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LMK, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 80 mph.

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

During the day on September 24th, an area of low pressure moved across the lower Great Lakes region. A cold front extending to the south of the surface low moved across the Ohio Valley during the afternoon and evening hours on the 24th. Along and ahead of the cold front, surface temperatures warmed into the upper 70s and low 80s with dewpoint temperatures rising into the upper 60s, providing sufficient instability for thunderstorms to develop. A dominant cluster of thunderstorms formed just north of the Ohio River during the early afternoon hours, producing scattered wind damage on both sides of the river. An EF0 tornado also formed within this area of severe thunderstorms, moving across southern Clark County and producing minor damage. By mid-to-late afternoon, the cold front pushed through southern Indiana, bringing an end to the severe weather risk.

A National Weather Service damage survey team confirmed an EF0 tornado tracked between Clarksville and Sellersburg in southern Clark County. The tornado touched down just northeast of the intersection of Interstate 65 and Interstate 265. The majority of the damage was in the Silver Lake Trailer Park. Trees were uprooted and topped, hitting two different mobile homes; the trees were facing from the north to the|northeast. There were nine power poles and seven cross members heavily|damaged. The foundations of some of the mobile homes had shifted as a result of the tornado. Tornado wind speeds were estimated to be 80 miles per hour, with a width of up to 100 yards.||A railroad arm at Apple Leaf Lane and U.S. Route 31 was bent significantly.|The tornado damaged a couple of trees in fields as it moved to the|northeast towards Charlestown Pike. Near the Prather Schoolhouse and Ladies Union Club on Charlestown Pike, there were several trees twisted and topped. Tornado wind speeds were estimated to be 75 miles per hour, with a width of up to 50 yards. The|tornado lifted just northeast of Charlestown Pike.

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.

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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:45 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.

Jefferson (JVY), 1 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Louisville radar (KLVX), 48 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:40 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

7 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.