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EF2 tornado in Clinton County, Indiana

Tornado November 17, 2013 · Clinton County, Indiana

EF2
Rating
25.4 mi
Whole path
150 yd
Path width
$360K
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Clinton County → Howard County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 150 yards (0.09 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

At 1513EST, the EF-2 tornado touched down in Michigantown. This EF-2 tornado caused damage to a hog farm and several properties northeast of Michigantown, with additional damage found to the east of Rossville. At 1519EST, the tornado crossed into southwest Howard County. The tornado was at its strongest as it crossed through the southeast side of Kokomo, causing extensive property damage. A BMO Bank was destroyed with significant damage to several fast food restaurants along South Washington Street. The tornado lifted 2 miles north of Greentown at 1536EST.

The wider storm

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.

Began near Michigantown (40.3263, -86.3946).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

13 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 485095. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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