EF1 tornado in Whitley County, Indiana

A NWS survey confirmed damage consistent with a brief EF-1 tornado. The tornado touched down West of County Road 850 West in a bean field and hit a farmstead, destroying a barn and chicken coop along with extensive tree damage. Much of the debris from the barn was lofted and scattered across the adjacent field to the northeast and embedded through the tree line one quarter of a mile northeast. An adjacent horse barn lost most of its roof with a nearby home and garage sustaining minor damage to roofing and siding material. However, severe tree damage occurred through a large grove of trees just north of this location with significant debris noted in the trees, many of which were uprooted or snapped. The tornado quickly lifted after this point. Maximum winds were estimated at 100 mph.

A line of severe thunderstorms developed in eastern Iowa during the afternoon hours of June 30th. Plenty of instability and moisture was available for the line to mature into a severe bow-echo with the bulk of this racing northwest of the area into Wisconsin and Central Lower Michigan. The southern flank of this line did briefly take on bowing characteristics, producing gusty winds over southern Lake Michigan into portions of northwestern Indiana and far southwestern Lower Michigan before dissipating. Behind this line, a much stronger line of thunderstorms rapidly developed on a pre-frontal trough in northern Illinois. This line had much more favorable parameters to work with deep layer shear to 50 knots and a rapidly increasing low level jet to 50 knots. As this second line of convection raced into northwestern Indiana during the late evening hours, several stronger circulations were noted along the leading edge that lead to multiple tornado confirmations and swaths of at times extensive wind damage. The second event continued into July 1st with additional wind damage and confirmed tornadoes occurring during the early morning hours.