EF3 Tornado — Johnson, Indiana

2023-03-31 · near New Whiteland, Johnson, Indiana

Event narrative

The rotating supercell's fifth and final tornado was a violent EF3 that immediately followed the Johnson County EF0. Following the storm's east-northeasterly track, a tornado redeveloped (2.8 miles after the end of the EF0) in an open field, 0.15 miles west of the intersection of South Sawmill Road and Park Forest South Drive. The tornado moved through mainly northern portions of the Park Forest neighborhood while strengthening from EF1 to EF2 intensity. The circulation continued towards US Highway 31, damaging a communications tower near Whiteland Sewer Department. After crossing US Highway 31, the tornado inflicted mainly EF2-intensity damage to southeastern portions of Whiteland, especially east of West Street and south of Main Street. Multiple homes sustained major roof damage, while a few homes had most exterior walls collapse, and one poorly constructed home had only one wall left standing.

Higher-end EF2 damage was observed as it crossed the railroad track and hit the neighborhood near Paris Lane and East Pearl Street. Numerous homes sustained roof damage. A poorly constructed and very poorly anchored home along East Pearl Street was completely destroyed down to its concrete slab. The tornado produced damage to a home along Whiteland Road before crossing an open field as it departed the Whiteland community. The vortex maintained intensity before hitting a few more homes along County Road 225 East (Graham Road). Many trees were uprooted or snapped with significant roof damage and a collapsed garage. A warehouse further east-northeast along Graham Road sustained EF3 damage from winds of 140 mph. Portions of the warehouse were completely gone and blown onto Interstate Route 65.

The circulation crossed Interstate 65 and weakened while continuing to the east-northeast. The tornado produced ground scoring through a field to the south of County Road 600 North, and then turned more northeasterly when approaching the intersection of 600 North and Hurricane Road. EF1 damage occurred on either side of Hurricane Road immediately south of its bridge over Hurricane Creek, where a large garage's walls were collapsed and minor tree damage occurred. Finally, the circulation strengthening to EF2 while turning back to more east-northeasterly, completely destroying two farm outbuildings one-third of a mile northeast of the Hurricane Road bridge. The tornado continued another 0.3 miles before ending on a slight rise of land, 0.3 miles west of County Road 500 East.

Wider weather episode

A strong, occluding storm system over the Upper Midwest produced a deep column of strong southwesterly winds over the Midwest on the afternoon and evening of the 31st.

This pattern generated an inordinate amount of vertical wind shear. The overall southwesterly flow also brought rather mild and somewhat humid air into the region, which was adequately unstable given noticeably colder air aloft, especially over the southwestern quadrant of Indiana.

Resulting thunderstorms were able to mix down the stronger winds to the surface as damaging straight line gusts, while a rather low freezing level promoted isolated large hail. Ten tornadoes occurred across the region: 5 from a rotating supercell thunderstorm that tracked roughly parallel to and about 20 miles south of Interstate 70, and 5 others spawned from a squall line's northern book-end vortex that impacted north-central central Indiana. The supercell's first two tornadoes (both EF3) caused a combined 5 fatalities...before the supercell spawned two more strong tornadoes (EF2/EF3), with the cell's final EF3 inflicting major damage on a warehouse in Whiteland (Johnson Co.). The (northern) squall line's first tornado was an EF2 that impacted mostly rural areas...while the squall line's four following tornadoes were all weak (EF0/EF1), with the final three spawned over Howard County, concluding with a longer tracking EF1 that injured one person.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (39.5363, -86.1042)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1089570. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.