EF3 Tornado — Cass, Indiana

2013-11-17 · near Young America, Cass, Indiana

9.4 mi

Path length

100 yds

Path width

Event narrative

An extensive NWS damage survey indicated a tornado briefly reached low end EF-3 intensity southeast of Lafayette continued through Tippecanoe and Carroll counties (see Storm Data for Central Indiana), crossing into Cass county just north of the intersection of County Road 1400 South and the Carroll/Cass county line. The tornado remained over mainly open fields until moving near a residence on County Road 150 East, south of 1250 South where a home had its chimney blown off and a barn on the property suffered a blown out wall. The tornado continued northeast and cause minor shingle damage to three homes on County Road 1250, west of County Road 300 East. A small barn was destroyed with debris thrown into an adjacent field. The tornado briefly intensified as it entered a grove of trees north of County Road 1200 South and west of 400 East where every tree for the first 100 feet was snapped five to ten feet above the base (DI: TH DOD: 4). The tornado remained over mainly open fields, occasionally causing minor tree damage until crossing US 35 north of County Road 1000 S where power poles were broken (DI: ETL DOD: 4). The tornado quickly lifted a few miles southwest of the Grissom Air Reserve Base. A maximum intensity of EF2 was reached while in Cass county, with estimated winds of 120 mph.

Wider weather episode

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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (40.5637, -86.3743)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 485059. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.