EF1 tornado, Bobtown, Indiana, April 27, 2026

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, as surveyed

EF1, preliminary

Date

April 27, 2026

Touchdown

4:44 PM EDT (20:44 UTC)

Lifted

4:49 PM EDT (20:49 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

3.7 miles (6.0 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Jackson County

Touchdown point

39.003, -85.981

Lift-off point

39.033, -85.925

Highest wind the damage implies

105 mph

Surveyed by

NWS IND

The office's name for it

JacksonTor

Survey last edited

April 30, 2026

Record number

None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.

Tornado touched down just east of Co Road 300E where multiple trees were snapped about 15 to 20 ft above ground. Tornado moved northeast and caused substantial damage to barns and to at least one home across a three to four mile path then lifted near Co Road 600E to the north of County Road 1000N. The tornado may not have been on the ground continuously for the whole track.

Written by NWS IND in the NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit. A survey is revised as better evidence arrives.

27 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS IND, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 105 mph.

• Multiple power poles snapped near base.
• Multiple wooden electrical poles snapped at their base.
• Chicken coop building had metal roof peeled in two spots. Power poles snapped nearby.
• House remained structurally intact with all walls standing. The debris from the garage to the east cuase most of the damage to the east side of the home and the roof. A significant amount of mud and fiberglass spatter was found on the north side of the home.

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

On April 27, 2026, an upper-level shortwave trough and an associated deepening surface low-pressure system tracked across the Midwest. South of the low's path, a sufficiently unstable warm sector surged into central Indiana, characterized by rich boundary-layer moisture and strong low and deep layer wind shear. This setup supported multiple rounds of severe convection resulting in numerous damaging wind gusts or large hail reports. Three tornadoes also occurred between Jackson and Morgan Counties, along with flash flooding in Knox and Marion Counties.

An EF-1 Tornado with a path length of 3.71 miles and path width of 100 yards moved through this area. The estimated peak winds were 105 mph with damage including snapped trees and two barns destroyed. The tornado touched down just east of Co Road 300E where multiple trees were snapped about 15 to 20 ft above ground. The tornado then moved northeast and caused substantial damage to barns and to at least one home across a three to four mile path before lifting near Co Road 600E to the north of County Road 1000N. The tornado may not have been on the ground continuously for the whole track.

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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:33 UTC and running to 00:40 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:49 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.

Columbus/Balkala (BAK), 28 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Indianapolis radar (KIND), 82 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:43 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 2026 tornado in IndianaEvery tornado in Indiana since 1950Warnings in force in Indiana nowThe forecast where you are

28 more have been surveyed in the United States that day, so far.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. A survey can be revised, so the rating, the path and the casualties can all still change.

NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit, the record the survey teams file from the damage, and NOAA Storm Prediction Center storm reports. Neither is the official database for 2026, which SPC publishes in the spring of 2027.