EF1 tornado, Kurtz to Acme, Indiana, June 17, 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

June 17, 2026

Touchdown

12:03 AM EDT (04:03 UTC)

Lifted

12:14 AM EDT (04:14 UTC)

On the ground

11 minutes

Path length

6.3 miles (10.2 km)

Path width

325 yards (297 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Jackson County

Touchdown point

38.984, -86.177

Lift-off point

38.997, -86.061

Highest wind the damage implies

110 mph

Surveyed by

NWS IND

The office's name for it

Jackson

Survey last edited

June 19, 2026

Record number

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

17 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 110 mph.

• Most of the roof was tore off. Tree fell onto the garage destroying it which likely helped cause more significant roof damage. Damage nearby was not nearly as bad. Garage in the home across the street was destroyed.
• Random tree damage north of likely circulation
• Looks like tree fell on the pole barn and completely destroyed it
• Near northern extent of circulation

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

During the 17th evening into the 18th early morning, a strong upper-level disturbance interacted with a warm, moist, and unstable airmass across central and southern Indiana. Strong vertical wind shear and moderate atmospheric instability supported the rapid development of supercells and bowing linear segments capable of producing tornadoes, damaging straight-line winds, and torrential rainfall.||Severe weather initiated in western Indiana around 7:40 PM EST on June 17 and tracked southeastward across the state through 1:25 AM EST on June 18. Four tornadoes touched down during the outbreak, highlighted by a strong EF-3 tornado with peak winds of 140 mph that tracked over 18 miles across Owen and Monroe counties, causing severe structural damage to residential properties and widespread tree damage. Three additional EF-1 tornadoes, with peak winds ranging between 95 mph and 110 mph, caused localized structural and timber damage across Vigo, Clay, Brown, and Jackson counties.||In addition to tornadoes, widespread straight-line wind gusts between 58 mph and 70 mph caused scattered tree and power line damage across broad portions of central and southern Indiana, resulting in temporary road blockages and localized power outages. Intense rainfall rates accompanying the initial severe thunderstorms also produced localized flash flooding in Vigo County, leading to multiple road closures in and around Terre Haute. This severe weather event would be the fifth of many for the month which would eventually define a formal disaster period from June 6th to the 18th which was declared by the governor of Indiana.

An EF-1 tornado with path length of 6.35 miles and a maximum width of 325 yards moved through portions of Jackson county. The peak winds were 110 mph with the tornado impacting mostly heavily wooded areas and a few residences.

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

13 minutes of warning. NWS IND issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:50 UTC, 13 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:38 UTC and running to 07:00 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 01:10 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.

Bedford (BFR), 33 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Indianapolis radar (KIND), 81 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:05 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

27 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.