EF1 Tornado — Clark, Indiana

2024-04-02 · near Watson, Clark, Indiana

Event narrative

The National Weather Service in Louisville surveyed storm damage in southeast Clark County IN, through far northeast Jefferson KY, and into western Oldham County. Specifically the tornado traveled just southeast of the Clark County Indiana Airport, east through Utica, crossing the Ohio River into Prospect, and lifting just east of the Sleepy Hollow Golf Course in Oldham County. The tornado was its strongest in Jefferson County, KY where it was an EF2 with 120 mph winds and 450 yards wide.

Clark County IN... A strong line of severe thunderstorms moved through Clark County Indiana developing a tornado near Interstate 265 and East State Road 62. This tornado led to healthy trees being uprooted near Charlestown Pike. Here, the tornado was an EF0 with 80 to 85 mph winds, and a width of 150 yards.

The tornado knocked over 3 full tractor trailers as well. The tornado quickly strengthened moving east through the Brookhollow neighborhood. Many garage doors were blown out, windows broken, and large sections of roof structure compromised, brick facade crumbling, and trees uprooted. The tornado was rated EF1 at 100

mph in this neighborhood with a width of 200 yards. Many wooden boards were impaled and driven more than a foot into the ground and some were impaled into homes.

An industrial business, with metal roofing near Interstate 265 and Old Salem Road had roof section pulled and twisted and had a 5000 pound salt pod lifted up over 4 foot concrete barrier, and thrown down a hill some 40 yards. The tornado was 100 mph, EF1, with a width of 225 yards.

The tornado continued east over the Ohio River in Northern Utica. Homes along the bank of the Ohio River had broken windows and peeled metal roofing, which occurred from an EF1 tornado with 97 mph winds and width of 250 yards.

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 → (38.3488, -85.7207)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1176061. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.