EF1 tornado, Spades to St Peters, Indiana, May 16, 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

May 16, 2025

Touchdown

8:02 PM EDT (00:02 UTC)

Lifted

8:11 PM EDT (00:11 UTC)

On the ground

9 minutes

Path length

6.3 miles (10.2 km)

Path width

250 yards (229 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$60,000

Counties

Dearborn, Franklin and Ripley counties

Touchdown point

39.250, -85.130

Lift-off point

39.310, -85.056

Record number

2505161802-01

25 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ILN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 93 mph.

• EMA reports twisted trees.
• Shingles 2x4 through siding

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

Showers and thunderstorms developed in an unstable airmass ahead of a cold front.

The tornado developed near the intersection of E County Road 1150 N and N Spades Road, where large limbs were broken off from both softwood and hardwood trees. Similar tree damage was found near the intersection of E County Road 1200 N and N Spades Road. ||Numerous trees were downed at properties on the west side of Spades Road, south of E County Road 1300 N. A large cluster of tree damage was then observed at a property located near the intersection of E County Road 1300 N and N Spades Road. In addition to some large hardwood tree limbs broken off, several large healthy trees were either uprooted or snapped. Minor siding damage and missing shingles were observed from a nearby home. ||Additional uprooted trees were observed northeast of this property. The tornado continued northeast, where it produced damage at a property near the intersection of E County Road 1500 N and N County Road 1000 E. Here, a well-built outbuilding had a complete collapse of its exterior walls. Additional hardwood tree damage was noted through the field northeast of this property. From here, the tornado moved out of Ripley County, Indiana at 1909EST and entered into Dearborn County, Indiana just southwest of N County Line Road. The tornado then crossed into Franklin County, Indiana and dissipated at 1911EST near the county line.

The tornado first developed in Ripley County, Indiana at 1902EST near E County Road 1150 N. The tornado moved northeast into Dearborn County, Indiana at 1909EST and produced damage at a property off of N County Line Road, where half of a barn roof was uplifted. Additionally, a home at the same property had shingle and siding damage. The tornado continued northeast and entered into Franklin County at 1910EST, just north of N County Line Road, where the tornado dissipated shortly after at 1911EST.

The tornado first developed in Ripley County, Indiana at 1902EST near E County Road 1150 N. The tornado travelled northeast, into Dearborn County and continued into Franklin County at 1910EST just north of N County Line Road, where a barn roof was removed. The tornado dissipated just northeast of this location at 1911EST.

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 23:17 UTC and running to 03:33 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 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:31 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), 110 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:01 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

26 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.