EF1 tornado in Miami County, Indiana

A survey of damage by NWS and emergency management officials indicated a EF1 tornado occurred northeast of the Grissom Air Reserve base. The tornado touched down in a field southeast of the intersection of US 31 and County Road 500 South and then took the roof off of a hog barn. The tornado continued to travel east where it hit another hog barn and took off the roof and collapsed the walls (DI: SBO DOD: 6). One piece of wall (estimated near 1/2 ton) was thrown back into the eastern side of the building and smashed the exhaust system. The tornado then turned NE and did extensive tree damage to a grove of trees on county Road 50 West before hitting a trailer home where half of the walls were collapsed (DI: MHSW DOD:4) and insulation and pieces of debris were strewn out for a half mile to the NE. The tornado then lifted about a third of a mile northeast of the trailer. Maximum winds are estimated around 110 mph. Although the distance between the 2 points was around 2.6 miles, a somewhat wavy track caused the actual distance to be closer to 2.9 miles long.

Deep low pressure moved across the northern Great Lakes, with a strong cold front trailing well south into Arkansas. A 50 to 60 knot low level jet aided in advecting in dewpoints greater than 60 degrees. 0-1km storm relative helicity values of 400 to 600 m2/s2 setup the perfect environment for individual thunderstorms to rapidly rotate. Numerous circulations were noted during the event, some significant, which produced swaths of wind damage as well as several weak to strong tornadoes. Given forward speed of 60 mph or more, the convection quickly translated across the area in a matter of hours.