EF1 tornado, Brownsburg Arpt to Brownsburg, Indiana, April 2, 2025

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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF1

Date

April 2, 2025

Touchdown

9:15 PM EDT (01:15 UTC)

Lifted

9:17 PM EDT (01:17 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

1.5 miles (2.5 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$200,000

County

Hendricks County

Touchdown point

39.864, -86.354

Lift-off point

39.876, -86.331

Record number

2504021915-01

47 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.

• Roof taken off west side of bar. Metal roofing thrown well to east and northeast. Large limb broken off tree and wedged well into ground back toward west indicating clear circulation. Length here about 100 yards and width 10 yards. Close to starting point possibly.
• Very top of house sustained roof damage with debris thrown northeast to northwest. Tornado likely small and weak at this point.
• Some roof material torn off and garage doors blown in on west side and outward and around building on east side. Appears to be new starting point of tornado.
• One section of precast concrete wall took direct hit.

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

A strong low pressure system generated a line of strong to severe thunderstorms that started in Illinois and moved across central Indiana. Multiple severe storms were embedded within the line and some of these produced tornadoes. Eleven tornadoes impacted central Indiana, ten of which occurred along an overall west-southwest to east-northeast area from north of Terre Haute to north of Muncie. Four of these events, from Hendricks County to Delaware County, were secondary tornadoes that tracked parallel to longer duration tornadoes. Three tornadoes combined to impact western and northern portions of the Indianapolis Metro area, including an EF2 in Hendricks County that caused the episode's only injury. In addition to the tornadoes widespread wind damage occurred with gusts over 80+ mph reported.

This third tornado to impact central Indiana tracked from rural areas southwest of Brownsburg through the southern portion of downtown Brownsburg and across Northfield Drive where the greatest damage occurred. Sporadic tree and roof damage occurred across southern portions of Brownsburg. The most significant damage was inflicted to several warehouses on Northfield Drive. One injury occurred at a warehouse where the wall caved in. Over 20 homes in the Branches neighborhood had roof and minor structure damage. The circulation tracked into Marion County where additional tree damage occurred in Eagle Creek Park just before the vortex lifted near Interstate Route 65. Peak wind gusts were 120 mph.

This fourth tornado to impact central Indiana was a secondary circulation that tracked north of the main tornado, from west of County Road 1000 East to west of Raceway Road. The tornado began west of County Road 1000 East where scouring occurred in a field, between Shoals Creek Road and County Road 700 North. The tornado then moved east, only bending a small utility pole before reaching the northwest corner of the Branches subdivision where several homes sustained roof and siding damage. The circulation then continued northeast, crossing County Road 750 North, destroying two older barns and a silo, which was only low EF-1 damage due to the age of these buildings. Debris was strewn to the northeast about a quarter mile with clear ground scouring and a debris field, with the tornado ending in this area. Peak wind gusts were 100 mph.

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

6 minutes of warning. NWS IND issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:09 UTC, 6 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:17 UTC and running to 03:00 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 00:55 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.

Indianapolis (EYE), 6 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Indianapolis radar (KIND), 19 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:13 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 2025 tornado in IndianaEvery tornado in Indiana since 1950Warnings in force in Indiana nowThe forecast where you are

87 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 88 of them

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.