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EF1 tornado in Dubois County, Indiana

Tornado June 25, 2023 · Dubois County, Indiana

EF1
Rating
9.1 mi
Whole path
565 yd
Path width
1
Death
1
Injury
$1.1M
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Martin County → Dubois County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 565 yards (0.32 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

The tornado started just west of Haw Creek Road in southern Martin County. While in Martin County the tornado traveled around 8 miles to the East-Southeast and produced EF2 damage. Once the tornado crossed into Dubois County, it began to weaken. It snapped and uprooted trees. The tornado lifted just before North 960 East in Dubois County.

The wider storm

An anomalously strong mid- and upper-level trough for late June moved across the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley on June 25th. A 60-70 kt 500 mb jet bisected the mid-Mississippi Valley, placing central Kentucky and southern Indiana in the left exit region, contributing to broad rising motion over the area. Near the surface, a well-defined cold front crossed the Mississippi River during the mid-to-late afternoon hours on June 25th, with temperatures in the upper 80s and lower 90s and dewpoints in the upper 60s and lower 70s in the warm sector ahead of the front. In the warm sector, mixed-layer CAPE of 2500-3500 J/kg provided plenty of fuel for convective development aside from the aforementioned favorable jet forcing. With 25-35 knots of flow at 850 mb, there was also ample vertical wind shear across the region, with effective bulk shear values generally above 45 kt, leading to the development of supercellular structures. The parameter space was favorable for all severe hazards. 0-1 km storm-relative helicity was over 200 m2/s2 and significant tornado parameter values were frequently greater than 1, suggesting the potential for rotating mesocyclones and tornadoes. Downdraft CAPE was over 1200 J/kg along and west of Interstate 65, suggesting the potential for strong winds from any formidable downdrafts. Finally, sufficient mid-level lapse rates and significant hail parameter values warranted concerns for severe hail. As would be expected given the parameter space, all severe hazards were observed, with a couple tornadoes and numerous straight-line wind and hail reports across southern Indiana and central Kentucky. Straight-line winds of up to 100 mph and multiple reports of golf ball or larger size hail serve as evidence of the highly unusual setup across the Ohio and Tennessee valleys June 25th.

Began near Hillham (38.5260, -86.7410).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1119119. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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