EF2 Tornado — Hendricks, Indiana

2025-04-02 · near Brownsburg Arpt, Hendricks, Indiana

Event narrative

This third tornado to impact central Indiana tracked from rural areas southwest of Brownsburg through the southern portion of downtown Brownsburg and across Northfield Drive where the greatest damage occurred. Sporadic tree and roof damage occurred across southern portions of Brownsburg. The most significant damage was inflicted to several warehouses on Northfield Drive. One injury occurred at a warehouse where the wall caved in. Over 20 homes in the Branches neighborhood had roof and minor structure damage. The circulation tracked into Marion County where additional tree damage occurred in Eagle Creek Park just before the vortex lifted near Interstate Route 65. Peak wind gusts were 120 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 → (39.8050, -86.4958)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1248889. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.