EF0 Tornado — Lawrence, Indiana

2025-04-02 · near Holtonville, Lawrence, Indiana

Event narrative

This eleventh and final tornado to impact central Indiana touched down very briefly in a rural area southeast of Heltonville, immediately northeast of the intersection of Indiana Route 446 and Mundell Church Road. Here, damage was caused to a pole barn with debris blown to the northwest: the south facing wall was the only wall left standing with damage from the barn to the west of the structure. Two 2x4s were also embedded into the ground facing to the west-northwest. As the barn's anchoring was under code, peak wind gusts were estimated at only 80 mph.

Wider weather episode

A strong low pressure system generated a line of strong to severe thunderstorms that started in Illinois and moved across central Indiana. Multiple severe storms were embedded within the line and some of these produced tornadoes. Eleven tornadoes impacted central Indiana, ten of which occurred along an overall west-southwest to east-northeast area from north of Terre Haute to north of Muncie. Four of these events, from Hendricks County to Delaware County, were secondary tornadoes that tracked parallel to longer duration tornadoes. Three tornadoes combined to impact western and northern portions of the Indianapolis Metro area, including an EF2 in Hendricks County that caused the episode's only injury. In addition to the tornadoes widespread wind damage occurred with gusts over 80+ mph reported.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (38.9039, -86.3462)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1248883. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.