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EF1 tornado in Steuben County, Indiana

Tornado March 30, 2025 · Steuben County, Indiana

EF1
Rating
5.7 mi
Path length
100 yd
Path width
$100K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 100 yards (0.06 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

An NWS damage survey confirmed a brief QLCS tornado embedded within a broad swath of damaging straight line winds in southwestern Steuben County, Indiana, on March 30th, 2025. The tornado likely originated in a field just north of Little Turkey Lake around 5:28 PM, before racing to the northeast. Several trees outbuildings were damaged to the northeast of Little Turkey Lake, most notably including a collapsed metal barn. Despite very limited ground evidence due to primarily open fields to the northeast, the tornado likely continued in a non continuous path over the next several minutes. A 50 to 100 yard swath of trees were snapped or uprooted on the southwest side of Long Lake, just west of W 500 S. The tornado then crossed Long Lake, before uprooting and snapping several trees and damaging homes along W Long Lake Road. No injuries were reported. Notable tree damage was observed in the boy scout camp just to the north. Aerial drone footage confirmed a convergent pattern to the downed trees, thus indicating the presence of a tornadic circulation along the damage path. Damage was consistent with a high end EF-0 to low end EF-1 tornado with maximum winds near 90 MPH. The tornado is believed to have ended shortly after, around 5:35 PM. In addition to the tornado, numerous trees and power lines were damaged due to straight line winds in excess of 75 MPH, along with some homes suffering roof and siding damage.

The wider storm

A cold front pushed into the area during the afternoon and evening hours, interacting with decent shear and MLCAPE to allow for numerous thunderstorm development. Pockets of damaging winds occurred along with a total of six confirmed tornadoes (three in far southern Lower Michigan and three in northern Indiana).

Began near Hudson (41.5400, -85.1100).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1241358. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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