EF2 Tornado — Clinton, Indiana

2023-03-31 · near Colfax, Clinton, Indiana

Event narrative

Continuation of the tornado that first impacted Montgomery and Boone Counties (as an EF1 and EF0, respectively). The tornado continued to track to the northeast, parallel to and roughly 0.8 miles southeast of West Manson Colfax Road, while intensifying. Near the intersection of County Roads 700 South and 750 West a homestead ascertained EF1-intensity damage, with 2 outbuildings on cinder blocks completely destroyed, the collapse of chimney and significant roof damage.

The tornado then reached peak intensity as an EF2 with peak winds of 120 mph, for about 0.5 miles prior to crossing US Highway 52 at the intersection with County Road 650 South. Through this most-intense segment, a large homestead lost large sections of roof structure, with a garage's brick walls blown out, while a large and poorly-anchored barn was destroyed; with a collapse of a nearby communications tower. EF1-intensity damage continued for another 1.6 miles towards Interstate Route 65, as a few barns were completely destroyed across this rural portion of southwestern Clinton County.

The tornado caused minimal EF0-intensity damage for the following 2 miles, including where it crossed Interstate Route 65, while occasionally dropping debris the vortex had picked up earlier in its path. The circulation restrengthened to EF1 intensity for its final 1.7 miles, causing significant damage just before ending about 3 miles southwest of Frankfort: hardwood trees were downed at County Road 400 South; before extensive damage near County Road 300 South which included the destruction of several barns/farm outbuildings among corresponding tree damage, including a concrete tower and a silo (at separate buildings) both leaning southwest, while another farm outbuilding's roof panels were wrapped around trees.

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 → (40.1789, -86.6655)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1089839. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.