EF1 Tornado — Rush, Indiana

2024-05-07 · near Moscow, Rush, Indiana

Event narrative

This third of five central Indiana tornadoes tracked slightly north of east, from 0.6 miles north of Rush County's southwest corner to 0.4 miles west of the intersection of County Roads 1000 South and 500 West.

Damage was mostly to trees and a couple barn roofs. The tornado touched down just northeast of the intersection of County Roads 1050 South and 1000 West, snapping several healthy softwood pine trees about 8-10 feet above ground, while nearby homes only sustained minor damage to siding; although a portion of a barn's metal roof was ripped back and blown off, thrown to the east-southeast. Northwest of the intersection of County Roads 875 West and 1050 South, several large tree branches were broken off by the northern edge of the tornado's vortex where a corn field met a wooded area. Towards the track's midpoint, a low-sloped barn roof, just west of South Degelow Road, had almost half of its metal ripped back, before further tree damage and a utility pole were downed at a homestead just west of County Road 775 West; a witness at this location saw the vortex before it became rain wrapped. Towards the end of the damage path, further minor tree damage with many downed tree limbs occurred along South River Road and the adjacent Flatrock River, before the tornado ended about 0.5 miles later while tracking along County Road 1000 South.

The parent supercell's rear flank downdraft inflow winds also approached 80 mph, as indicated by periphery damage about 0.25 miles south of the convergent tornadic damage at County Road 775 West, as well as at South River Road where the wide damage path included weak convergence through the wooded area where the tornado tracked. This was the longest-tracking and most destructive tornado of the episode in central Indiana, although all damage was EF0 intensity following the peak intensity of 110 mph winds (EF1) at the tornado's onset.

Wider weather episode

At times robust south-southwesterly breezes brought unseasonably high dewpoints in the upper 60s and temperatures around 80 degrees, which led a favorable set-up for severe thunderstorms that also included high low-level helicity, and a 40-knot low-level jet stream ahead of an approaching cold front, all under adequate divergence aloft from the right exit region of a cyclonically curved jet streak.

Numerous rotating thunderstorms resulted through late day and evening hours, which produced widespread marginally severe hail across ten counties along and to the east-southeast of the Interstate 70 corridor, with strongest cells producing 1.50-1.75 inch hail and/or widely scattered wind damage from Clay County to Decatur County, as well as five weak tornadoes within Shelby, Rush and Decatur Counties. The tornadoes caused mainly tree damage and some minor structural damage. Several supercells actually tracked over the same areas where tornadoes occurred, which made video footage a key part of proper event verification. Some of the tornadoes may have actually had longer track lengths, but this could not be deciphered given the broad open farm fields. Witness reports indicated that some of the tornadoes were small, rope tornadoes that bounced across the landscape.

Less intense thunderstorms north of the Interstate 70 corridor produced small hail over a few zones, as well as a funnel cloud in Tipton County before an early evening cell downed a few trees in eastern Randolph County.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (39.4621, -85.6290)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1166364. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.