EF1 Tornado — Floyd, Indiana

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

Event narrative

The first area of damage was at The Sporting Club at the Farm on Indiana State Road 111. Two large barns had significant roof damage and there was shingle and soffit damage to a large, well-built house. Of significance, a 110-pound storm cellar door was sucked out and thrown almost 100 yards to the east. There were 3 trees uprooted

and facing from north to an easterly direction.

The 600-pound sign for the sporting club was lifted up and moved to the north several feet. The tornado crossed Highway 111 and snapped and twisted over a dozen trees along the west side of the Ohio River. Because of the 110-pound bolted tornado shelter door being sucked out, the tornado rating increased from 95 to 100 mph. The

width was 100 yards wide.

The tornado continued near Five Mile Lane and River Road in Floyd County along the Ohio River where shingles were lost on a residence and a barn garage received significant roof damage where the metal panels were peeled off. The tornado then crossed the Ohio River into Kentucky in the Lake Dreamland area of West Louisville in western Jefferson County.

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 → (38.2169, -85.8699)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1103181. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.