EF1 Tornado — Washington, Indiana

2023-08-07 · near Salem Muni Arpt, Washington, Indiana

Event narrative

The first tornadic damage was a few trees down off Country Club Road going into the Western Hills Golf Course. There was damage to the garage roofing structure at the Salem Speedway. The tornado was intermittent as it straddled Indiana Hwy 56 in the west side of Salem.

The most significant amount of damage from the tornado was between Hwy 56 and Old State Route 60. There was plenty of damage to the siding, gutters, and to several businesses roofing structures. Debris from the buildings was thrown in a northerly to easterly direction about 150 yards. Winds were 90 mph with a width of 60 yards. There were several snapped and topped power poles and lines as well.

The tornado snapped and uprooted a few trees between old State Route 60 and North Cox Ferry Road. Winds in this area were 80 mph.

Drone photography showed that the damage stopped before it hit Cauble Street.

There was extensive straight-line wind damage throughout Salem of between 60 and 70 mph. One area off Drive-In Theater Rd had 80 mph straight-line winds with many hardwood trees uprooted.

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 → (38.5957, -86.1412)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1119018. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.