EF1 Tornado — Harrison, Indiana

2024-04-02 · near Crandall, Harrison, Indiana

Event narrative

The National Weather Service in Louisville conducted a damage assessment survey of a tornado that started at a property off of Hidden Springs Drive in far eastern Harrison County, Indiana and ended near Watts Road, just south of Georgetown, in Floyd County. Video clearly showed the tornado touching down multiple times.

The tornado initially touched down and damaged a house off of Hidden Springs Drive. Much of the landscaping around the house wasn't disturbed. An outdoor hot tub on the northern end of the west side of the house had its heavy cover broke and thrown to the

southwest. The southwest side of this well constructed house had a section of its roof decking torn off and thrown which can be seen in the video. Wind speeds were estimated at 95 mph based on this damage. In one area of the house, the damage penetrated the ceiling. In other parts, the ceiling has been lifted away from the walls. Much of the soffit around the house has been sucked in or blown out. Some insulation from the attic is stuck to the east side of the house with additional amounts on the south facing exposed surfaces like door jambs and light fixtures. This is evidence of cyclonic flow. A patio chair that was sitting behind the house was found approximately 133 yards away in the woods.

Approximately 100 yards east of the house, a few mature trees have been snapped on the edge of the woods. Farther in the woods, roofing debris was found on the ground and in trees as far 380 yards from where it came. The main section of roof that was

thrown, and can been seen on video, wasn't located. Many trees were freshly damaged or uprooted in the woods, but many of those were already dead.

The video showed the tornado strengthening and weakening with a condensation funnel barely visible at times. It showed inflow being pulled into the tornado which was strong enough to bring down compromised trees. The tornado can also be seen dropping and lifting very small vortices as it approached Georgetown. Minor tree damage was found off of Georges Hill Road and west of Georgetown County Line Road before the tornado cross into Floyd County.

Wider weather episode

As a surface low cut across Missouri and Illinois, its eastward stretching warm front moved north across central Indiana while its cold front moved east towards the Lower Ohio Valley. This placed southern Indiana in the warm sector, where 3 separate lines of convection moved through during the day. The first line of storms generating from an early morning outflow boundary dropped southeast through the area. This produced some isolated wind damage which caused one person to get injured in Dubois County. The second line, moving west to east, ripped the roof off a fire house in Crawford County before producing a tornado near Georgetown. The third line, just ahead of the cold front, moved through during the evening hours. This line knocked trees down in Crawford County before producing a tornado along Interstate 265 in Clark County that crossed the Ohio River into Kentucky. A total of ten injuries were reported from the Indiana Department of Homeland Security.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (38.2700, -86.0220)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1175669. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.