EF2 tornado, Gibson County, Indiana, June 21, 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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2, preliminary

Date

June 21, 2026

Touchdown

7:02 PM CDT (00:02 UTC)

Lifted

7:25 PM CDT (00:25 UTC)

On the ground

23 minutes

Path length

11.5 miles (18.5 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Gibson County

Touchdown point

38.223, -87.700

Lift-off point

38.306, -87.520

Highest wind the damage implies

115 mph

Surveyed by

NWS PAH

The office's name for it

Fort Branch, IN

Survey last edited

June 23, 2026

Record number

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

An EF-2 tornado touched down about 2.5 miles north of Cynthiana near Hwy 65. It travelled northeast before eventually crossing Hwy 41, passing by to the northwest of Fort Branch. It lifted just north of County Road 350 S about 5 miles northeast of Fort Branch. There were 9 large wooden transmission poles that were snapped along Hwy 65 near the start of the track. One home suffered significant roof damage along with several others with minor damage. A church experienced complete roof loss. There were also dozens of trees that were uprooted or had trunks snapped. Thank you to Gibson County EMA for their assistance with this survey.

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

30 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS PAH, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 115 mph.

• Two older wooden power poles leaning.
• Electric company workers said nine large wooden transmission poles were snapped.
• Numerous pine trees snapped.
• Near complete uplift of roof structure.

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

27 minutes of warning. NWS PAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:35 UTC, 27 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:29 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. 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 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 Evansville,IN radar (KVWX), 10 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:04 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

43 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.