EF2 Tornado — Knox, Indiana

2024-05-26 · near Decker, Knox, Indiana

Event narrative

The tornado with peak winds of 112 mph began near Decker where tree damage was found near the starting point. At the start, funnel clouds were jumping as most

of the damage was confined to the trees while houses remained

undamaged. The tornado quickly strengthened in producing low end

EF2 damage about a half mile east of Decker where a pole barn was

destroyed with debris found over a mile east of the original

damage location. In that same lot, a school bus was picked up and

moved about 20 yards away.

A sporadic damage path continued for about 2.5 miles northeast of

Decker with EF1 damage to mainly trees and one other small barn.

The sporadic damage path persisted through rural portions of

southern Knox County with EF0 tree and power line damage. About 3

miles southwest of Monroe City, the tornado hit another garage

structure, pushing in its bolted doors and causing the structure

to collapse. Debris from that structure was thrown about a mile

northeastward into a field, with drone footage capturing

circulations carved in the ground in that field. There were likely

a few circulations associated with the main tornado as additional

tree damage was found on the north side of this same property,

with no damage in between, leaving the house unaffected.

The tornado continued on its northeast path through southern Knox

County about a mile south of Monroe City, causing EF0 damage to

trees. The tornado lifted in rural portions of southeast Knox

County just prior to the Knox/Daviess County line.

Wider weather episode

Two rounds of thunderstorms impacted central Indiana during the Sunday before Memorial day with a quick microburst in the morning followed by a QLCS tornado across Knox county followed by a swath of thunderstorm winds. Damage beyond Knox county was more widespread but not quite as intense as the EF-2 tornado.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (38.5170, -87.5226)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1171255. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.