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EF2 tornado in Montgomery County, Indiana

Tornado November 17, 2013 · Montgomery County, Indiana

EF2
Rating
12.7 mi
Whole path
75 yd
Path width
$186K
Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 75 yards (0.04 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 1432EST, this EF-2 tornado touched down in NE Veedersburg where there was roof damage to a large manufacturing plant. The most extensive damage with this EF-2 tornado occurred in the town of Mellott. One mobile home was completely destroyed, with four additional mobile homes that were either rolled off their foundation or damaged. An old retail shop with a cinder block base had the exterior wall collapse. A residence a little over two miles east of Newtown, had a garage and barn destroyed, as well as the entire roof removed from the home. From 1442EST to 1443EST, the tornado crossed through the far northwest corner of Montgomery County not causing much damage. Then the tornado moved into southwest Tippecanoe County causing damage to a shed and a home. At 1445EST, the tornado lifted 4 miles north-northeast of Wingate.

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 Wingate (40.2087, -87.0922).

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 485111. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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