Thunderstorm Wind — Pike, Indiana

2024-07-30 · near Petersburg, Pike, Indiana

Event narrative

As thunderstorms moved southeastward across Petersburg, a tree was blown down on North St. Additionally, a tree fell near the intersection of IN-57 and County Rd 150 W.

Wider weather episode

A particularly explosive storm environment developed on the afternoon of the 30th. MLCAPE values rose to 3500 J/kg, 0-3 km CAPE of 100-150 J/kg, effective bulk shear of 40 kts, and 0-3 km shear of 20-30 kts. Temperatures rose to the low 90s with dew points in the upper 70s to near 80, yielding heat index values near 110. For Southwest Indiana, the storms moved through late afternoon towards sunset. A more complex setup occurred relative to Illinois and Kentucky. A robust cluster of storms moved southeastward through Gibson County towards Evansville, bringing down trees and powerlines in Patoka and Princeton while damaging corn. A semi truck was overturned at the Toyota plant south of Princeton. Meanwhile, a north-south line of storms moving into Posey County accelerated eastward into Evansville with widespread reports of wind damage in Vanderburgh County. Near Melody Hill, just east of the airport, the intersecting boundary with these two clusters spun up an EF-1 tornado that tracked southeastward into Warrick County lifting northeast of Newburgh. Straight-line wind damage occurred in Warrick County north and south of the tornado track. The following day, one person (65m) passed away due to a heart attack sustained while cleaning up tree debris in Newburgh.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (38.5014, -87.2842)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1203535. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.