EF1 Tornado — Floyd, Indiana

2023-05-07 · near Edwardsville, Floyd, Indiana

Event narrative

The first damage point towards the western end of McCarthy Knob Road was some straight-line wind damage of some cedars and maple trees of 75 mph. Shortly east of there was more widespread tree damage on the west side of the road and up the hill. There were softwood and hardwood trees twisted, snapped, topped, and uprooted for almost a half a mile which ended near the intersection of Budd Road.

A tree fell on the back side of the house, causing some gutter and fascia damage. There were several power lines down and two power poles pushed over. The maximum tornado winds were 90 mph.

Wider weather episode

During the early morning hours of May 7th, a cluster of strong and occasionally severe thunderstorms over central Illinois gradually grew upscale into a bowing line of storms as it moved southeast into central and southern Indiana toward dawn. Ahead of the developing quasi-linear convective system, a moderately unstable environment was present across southern Indiana, with MLCAPE ranging from around 500 J/kg in the east to around 1500 J/kg in the west. The line of thunderstorms generally produced sub-severe wind gusts across southern Indiana, as the strongest winds remained aloft thanks to a residual nocturnal stable layer. However, as storms approached the Ohio River, a few discrete cells moving from west to east were overtaken by the line which was moving from north-northwest to south-southeast. In the fifteen minutes or so after these cell mergers took place, five brief spin-up tornadoes occurred in Floyd County, producing pockets of structural and tree damage across the county. All of the tornadoes produced either EF0 or EF1 damage, with estimated wind speeds generally between 75 and 105 mph. Minor straight-line wind damage was also observed as this line of storms moved through. The severe threat ended by 10 a.m. as storms pushed southward into central Kentucky.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (38.2462, -85.9028)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1103153. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.