EF1 Tornado — Orange, Indiana

2023-08-06 · near French Lick Muni Arp, Orange, Indiana

Event narrative

The tornado first touched down in Dubois County near County Rd 200 West and Haysville Rd. After crossing into Orange County, the tornado continued about a mile and a half east where drone footage as well as tree snapping and uprooting indicated a slight convergence pattern towards the northeast. Multiple vehicles, trailers, and mobile homes were rolled over into the forest towards the northeast. This area along South County Road 1050 W sustained significant and extensive damage as compared to areas just west. The tornado continued to track in the east-northeast direction. Drone footage from trees and cornfields also indicate convergence. Most of the worst damage was observed just north of the French Lick airport.

As the tornado tracked northeastward, large swaths of trees were snapped and uprooted. Some homes saw minor roof and wall paneling damage. Areas just east of W County Road 150 S saw extensive tree damage where a path of about 200 yards wide experienced 105 mph winds according to the damage observed in the forest.

Just southwest of Paoli, near S county Road 225 and heading northeast towards S Thompson Lane, a path of significant damage affected multiple homes and created a vast debris field toward the northeast. The entire western side of a home had sidewall and paneling ripped off part of the roof. Part of the actual roof was also ripped off. Tree next to it also snapped. There was lots of debris to the northeast and house insulation in the fences and trees. A barn located on the edge of a clearing near a cornfield was mostly flattened towards the northeast.

Thompson lane saw major tree damage with large swaths of trees being snapped in a northeast direction and some slight convergence seen from drone footage. The tornado ended here with no observed damage to the east from this tornado track on the southwest side of Paoli. In total, the tornado was rated EF1 with 107 mph maximum

winds and was a continuous track for 25.89 miles, which is a record long tornado for August in the NWS Louisville county warning area. This breaks the previous known record for long track tornado in August of 4 miles in Jefferson County, IN on August

14, 2002.

Wider weather episode

Several individual storms moved across Missouri and Illinois before combining into a line of convection as it moved across southern Indiana. The line interacted with the low level jet to produce 6 tornadoes across 4 Indiana counties, including a long track tornado that traveled 25.89 miles through Dubois and Orange Counties. This set the record for the longest known tornado track for the month of August within the NWS Louisville County Warning Area. Other parts of the line surged and caused tree and power line damage along and north of Interstate 64 across southern Indiana and into the greater Louisville, Kentucky area. Additional wind and hail reports were received from the Bluegrass region of Kentucky.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (38.5030, -86.6820)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1119003. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.