EF2 Tornado — Madison, Indiana

2025-04-02 · near Lapel, Madison, Indiana

Event narrative

This sixth tornado to impact central Indiana was the first of five tornadoes spawned within Madison County and Delaware County, and was also the first of three secondary tornadic circulations, over these two counties, to track parallel to and south of the main tornadic circulations. The tornado quickly formed along the northern end of the rear flank downdraft and moved rapidly in a north-northeasterly direction across southeastern portions of the Lapel Area. A farmhouse and several outbuilding sustained significant damage with debris strewn from west to northeast and deposited down wind for over a mile. Peak wind gusts were 125 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 → (40.0400, -85.8445)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1248891. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.