Flash Flood in Bartholomew County, Indiana

Thunderstorm rainfall of up to 2.50 inches in under 1.5 hours produced flash flooding in the Columbus area, closing County Road 525 East at Base Road, with water also on US Highway 11 just south of County Road 650 South.

The 21st late day brought a quickly-evolving set-up featuring an increasingly moist column supported by an approaching Middle Mississippi Valley upper short wave trough, strengthening flow amid a warm frontal zone draped over the local central Indiana region providing 35-50KT of effective wind shear, and advection of higher low-level dewpoints with daytime heating which provided sufficient destabilization. Severe rotating supercells tracked across Illinois into southern central Indiana as they aligned into a Mesoscale Convective Vortex (MCV).

Wind damage occurred within nine central Indiana zones and as far east as Brown County, five (mainly EF-0) tornadoes were focused in Owen County and points south and west, while the region's farthest southwestern counties experienced scattered flash flooding following downpours from multiple supercells. A final EF-0 torando and flash flooding also occurred in Bartholomew County. This Bartholomew County EF-0 was Indiana's 63rd tornado in 2026...a new yearly state tornado record (73 events) was set later in the evening, with 74 tallied by the end of June 21st.