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EF2 tornado in Benton County, Indiana

Tornado March 31, 2023 · Benton County, Indiana

EF2
Rating
11.5 mi
Path length
400 yd
Path width
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 400 yards (0.23 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

This tornado touched down near the intersection of E County Road 200 S and S Adeway Rd south of Fowler. The tornado tracked to the northeast for nearly 12 miles. Along the way, it damaged a few homes and multiple wind turbines. The tornado reached its maximum intensity just east of Fowler where it snapped the base of a wind turbine about halfway up and threw the blades of wind turbines as far as 600 yards to the northeast. Wind speeds during this time are estimated to be around 120 mph. The storm also downed trees and power poles. It lifted near N County Road 800 E and E County Road 600 N in northeast Benton County.

The wider storm

During the afternoon and evening of the 31st, a wave of severe thunderstorms produced numerous tornadoes, severe hail, and extensive wind damage across northwestern Indiana. A total of 23 tornadoes were confirmed across the state. The NWS Chicago office tied a record for the most tornadoes to occur in a single calendar day within the office's county warning area with 22, 5 of which occurred in Indiana. Two EF-2 tornadoes occurred in Benton County and one other in Lee County, Illinois. Some of the more notable damage includes a few homes with walls and portions of roofing blown away, a wind turbine that had been snapped in half, and wind turbine blades thrown as far as 600 yards, all a result of the two EF-2 tornadoes in Benton County.

Began near Swanington (40.5780, -87.3237).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

5 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1085924. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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