Thunderstorm Wind — Gibson, Indiana

2012-07-31 · near Oakland City, Gibson, Indiana

Event narrative

A very destructive macroburst with winds estimated up to 110 mph snapped or uprooted thousands of trees. Hundreds of structures were damaged. A total of 78 structures received major damage such as loss of roof decking or porches, and 249 sustained minor damage such as loss of shingles or minor siding loss. Dozens of barns and sheds were heavily damaged or destroyed. The macroburst damage was concentrated in Oakland City. The damage area extended south to the Warrick County line. In Oakland City, a tree was down on a trailer with residents still inside. The damage path was 3.5 miles wide and 12 miles long. One person was injured due to wind, and three people were injured by hail. All of the injuries occurred in Oakland City, and all were treated at hospitals. Roads were blocked by debris, including State Route 57. Two miles south of Oakland City, part of a roof was on a roadway.

Wider weather episode

A cluster of severe thunderstorms moved southward across southwest Indiana. The storms produced a swath of wind and hail damage in a narrow corridor just to the east of a Princeton to Evansville line. The storms developed along and ahead of a cold front as it advanced south-southeast through central Illinois and central Indiana during the late afternoon. Temperatures reached the upper 90's to near 100 degrees ahead of the storms, resulting in a rather unstable air mass with mixed-layer capes up to 2500 j/kg. Moderately strong winds aloft supported multicell thunderstorms and an occasional supercell structure. Strong surface heating steepened low-level lapse rates, and low relative humidity near the ground enhanced the threat for strong downbursts.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (38.3300, -87.3500)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 391572. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.