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EF1 tornado in Posey County, Indiana

Tornado July 9, 2024 · Posey County, Indiana

EF1
Rating
3.3 mi
Path length
300 yd
Path width
$5K
Damage as recorded
$2K
Crop damage
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 300 yards (0.17 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 long track cell produced its second Southwest Indiana tornado on the afternoon of July 9th with an EF-1 tornado that began just east of Springfield. A power pole was bent on Oliver Springfield Rd. The tornado tracked to the NNW, damaging a tree grove on Old Beech Creek. Additional tree damage occurred along Old Beech Rd and Lynn Harmony Township Rd with the tornado lifting before reaching Shakerag Rd. Peak estimated winds with this tornado were 105 mph.

The wider storm

The remnants of Hurricane Beryl tracked north-northeastward to the Quad State region on the 9th, with the center of circulation following near the Lower Ohio River. The bulk of the stratiform precipitation was northwest of the Quad State, keeping flooding issues from developing. On the eastern flank of the storm, supercellular structure developed on the north end of the lakes in Kentucky, then tracked northeastward, crossing into Southwest Indiana at Mount Vernon after producing two tornadoes in Union County, Kentucky.

The first SW Indiana tornado rapidly strengthened into an EF-3 as it damaged a large Kenco facility. The tornado overturned train cars and trailers near Old Hwy 62 as it departed from Mount Vernon, causing tree damage further north. This was the first EF-3 tornado in the NWS Paducah County Warning Area (CWA) in July, with records going back to 1950. The tornado cycled multiple times in Southwest Indiana, with tornado paths beginning near Springfield (an EF-1), and again north of Poseyville (an EF-2). For the latter, the damage path broadened as it approached Johnson and leveled several structures. The Johnson tornado narrowly missed the KVWX radar, crossing 1.5 miles to the west. One last brief EF-1 tornado formed on the west side of Patoka from the primary cell. A cluster of storms further east produced a brief EF-1 tornado south of Francisco. The 7 tornadoes from this day (5 in Indiana, 2 in Kentucky) were a single day record for July tornadoes in the NWS Paducah CWA.

Effective bulk shear was near 50 kts when the tornadoes developed, while SRH was 300 m2/s2, and the supercell composite parameter was 8 for the Mount Vernon tornado and lower for subsequent tornadoes. MLCAPE was 500-1000 J/kg (higher southeast of the supercell).

Began near Springfield (38.0420, -87.8630).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

4 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1203226. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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