Tornadoes · United States · Indiana · 2026

Unrated tornado, Delaware County, Indiana, August 19, 2026

This Unrated tornado ran 0.1 miles across Delaware County on August 19, 2026, touching down at 5:31 PM EDT. It killed nobody.

Preliminary. This is NWS IND's damage survey, filed in the Damage Assessment Toolkit as DelawareCoAug19. The rating, the path and the casualties are the survey's and can change while it is revised. The Storm Prediction Center compiles the official record of 2026 from these surveys and publishes it in the spring of 2027; this page moves to that tornado's permanent address when it does.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  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.

The survey

Rating, as surveyed
Unrated, preliminary
Date
August 19, 2026
Touchdown
5:31 PM EDT (21:31 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.1 km)
Path width
0 yards (0 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Delaware County
Touchdown point
40.227, -85.496
Lift-off point
40.227, -85.495
Surveyed by
NWS IND
The office's name for it
DelawareCoAug19
Survey last edited
August 20, 2026
Record number
None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.

What the survey found

Based on videos and pictures, a tornado briefly touched down east of North Country Road 600W and north of Indiana State Route 332. No damage was found.

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

The damage survey

1 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.

  • Video and pictures from northwest of Muncie suggest a brief tornado touchdown just north of State Route 332 for a short distance. No damage was found.

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

The warnings

4 minutes of warning. NWS IND issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:27 UTC, 4 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:46 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
18:00 UTC12:00 UTCFlood WatchIND
21:09 UTC01:15 UTCFlood AdvisoryIND
21:09 UTC21:46 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningIND
21:27 UTC21:46 UTCTornado WarningIND
23:57 UTC00:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningIND
01:03 UTC04:40 UTCFlood AdvisoryIND

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:57 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 air that afternoon

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.

Cncnati-Daytn, OH (KILN), 12:00Z

9.5 hours before the tornado, 170 km from the path. August 19, 2026.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 12:00Z on 2026-08-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 12 joules per kilogram, CIN -89, lifted condensation level 906 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 12:00Z on 2026-08-19The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 72 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 41 knots.1939587897Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
12 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-89 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
906 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
72 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
137 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Cncnati-Daytn, OH (KILN), 00:00Z

2.5 hours after it, 170 km from the path. August 20, 2026.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 00:00Z on 2026-08-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 192 joules per kilogram, CIN -14, lifted condensation level 864 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 00:00Z on 2026-08-20The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 126 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 44 knots.1939587897Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
192 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-14 J/kg
Surface CAPE
559 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
864 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
44 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
126 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
135 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
1.4
0-3 km lapse rate
6.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Indianapolis radar (KIND), 88 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:30 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
19:45 UTCRAIN 0.81 E LinwoodMadison, IN
21:15 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 E AlexandriaMadison, INA tree was blown down.
21:28 UTCHAIL 1.54 Wnw YorktownDelaware, IN
21:30 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD3 Nw Ball State UniversDelaware, INFunnel cloud spotted about six miles West of I-69 on Mile Marker 241.
21:31 UTCTORNADO4 Nnw YorktownDelaware, INDelayed report from 8/19. An EF-U tornado with unknown wind speeds and a path length of 0.08 miles began at this location. No damage was found.
21:38 UTCHAIL 12 Sw YorktownDelaware, IN
21:57 UTCFLOODBall State UniversityDelaware, INFlooding on multiple streets including Wheeling and University.
22:14 UTCRAIN 1.71 Ne Ball State UniversDelaware, IN
23:15 UTCTSTM WND GST 605 W AtlantaTipton, INTime is estimated.
00:00 UTCFLASH FLOOD2 Sw FranktonMadison, INWater flowing across four roads near and south of Frankton. Flash flooding ongoing at 1000 PM EDT. LSR time estimated.
00:08 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 S AndersonMadison, INLocation is very generalized. Strong winds southern part of the county and receiving several calls of powerlines down.
00:25 UTCRAIN 1.262 S AndersonMadison, INAmount in 20 minutes.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2026 tornado in IndianaEvery tornado in Indiana since 1950Warnings in force in Indiana nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of August 19, 2026

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

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 1911:47 PM CDTEF1Carlisle, KY1.575
August 1911:59 PM CDTEF1Graves, KY0.350

What this means

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.

Sources

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.