EF1 Tornado — Perry, Indiana

2023-04-05 · near Leopold, Perry, Indiana

Event narrative

The National Weather Service Louisville confirmed an EF1 tornado

in Eastern Perry County Indiana, near Leopold, from severe storms

on Wednesday afternoon, April 5. The tornado touched down in a

hilly forested area, along Leopold Oriole Road, 0.2 miles north

of the Leopold town square. The twister started off as an EF0 80

mph in the forested area with a few snapped and uprooted trees.

The tornado rapidly increased to a 95 mph EF1 striking a very well

built 45 by 125 barn with extra hurricane clips, nails and bolts.

The foundation of the barn through the roof bracing was one of the

best new built barns this survey team has ever seen.

A large portion of the roof was thrown over 100 yards to the north

northeast to a easterly direction. There were numerous boards impaled

into the ground and some of the metal sheeting was thrown 200 yards,

wrapping around a large maple tree. NWS drone footage showed a few

more pieces of the roof were thrown into the neighbor's pond, which

is about 350 yards away. Residents at the home felt their house shake

for about 15 seconds and their ears were popping.

Adjacent to the barn was a tractor tire that was moved 25 yards to the

northwest with no noticeable skid marks with the tire. The foundation

of the barn was pulled northeastward slightly, and a large pick up

trailer fully loaded with supplies in the barn moved about 6 inches.

The drone showed a large area of snapped and uprooted trees just

northeast of the home in a forested area. The drone showed no damage

beyond that tree damage across a farmers field.

Wider weather episode

During the afternoon and evening hours of April 5, a low pressure system, moving northeast from Minnesota into Ontario, dragged a trailing cold front through the Lower Ohio Valley. This produced a line of severe storms that moved west to east over southern Indiana, resulting in multiple reports of tree damage, structural damage, and one tornado in Perry County.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (38.1080, -86.5880)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1094831. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.