EF1 tornado in Lawrence County, Indiana

At 1557EST, this EF-1 tornado touched down one mile west-northwest of Bedford and tracked across the north side of Bedford. Most of the funnel was aloft, but intermittently touched down several times which split and uprooted trees, knocked down power lines, and caused some roof and structural damage to several homes. The worst of the damage was along M, N, and O Streets on the north side of Bedford. Several witnesses observed one or two small, narrow funnels dropping up and down from a wide wall cloud. Many witnesses described a strong pressure change, a green sky, and a roar as the tornado went through. The tornado lifted for good at 1559EST 1.5 miles northeast of Bedford. NWS Louisville conducted this survey.

A large outbreak of severe weather took place on November 17, 2013. In Indiana alone there were 29 tornadoes, with dozens more in other states. In central Indiana the strongest tornado was rated an EF-3. There were 8 EF-2 tornadoes, 6 EF-1 tornadoes, and 1 EF-0 tornado in central Indiana. This number of tornadoes for the entire state is the largest outbreak for November in recorded history for Indiana, and the third largest outbreak in state history for any month (June 2, 1990 is first with 37 tornadoes, April 19, 2011 is second with 29 tornadoes).

A potent weather system moved into the Ohio Valley during the afternoon of November 17, 2013. The setup became ideal for severe weather, including multiple tornadoes. A strong jet stream was approaching central Indiana during the afternoon of November 17. An upper trough was approaching the area as well. Not far off the surface, strong winds were flowing north from the Gulf of Mexico. Speeds at 500 meters over Indiana at 3:00 PM were over 50 mph. This system's setup provided the area with plenty of instability for thunderstorms to form. The turning of the winds with height, set up by the approaching upper trough and winds ahead of the surface cold front, set the stage for the potential for tornadoes. The effective storm relative helicity values, by mid-afternoon,were 500 to 700 m2/s2 across central Indiana and were extremely high for November. As a result of this setup, numerous thunderstorms developed across Illinois and quickly became severe. These storms produced numerous tornadoes across Illinois. The strong winds aloft caused the storms to move quickly into Indiana, where additional tornadoes and severe thunderstorms developed.