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EF2 tornado in Madison County, Indiana

Tornado April 2, 2025 · Madison County, Indiana

EF2
Rating
13.7 mi
Whole path
250 yd
Path width
$600K
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Madison County → Madison County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 250 yards (0.14 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 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

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.

The wider storm

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.

Began near Lapel (40.0400, -85.8445).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1248891. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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