F3 Tornado — Warrick, Indiana

2005-11-06 · near Newburgh, Warrick, Indiana

Event narrative

This tornado, which crossed into Warrick County from Vanderburgh County just south of Interstate 164 (at Angel Mounds), crossed the entire county in less than 20 minutes. The tornado reached its peak intensity in Warrick County, where winds reached about 200 MPH. The peak winds occurred along Highway 261 and Lincoln Road, in an industrial park near Paradise, and in DeGonia Springs. As the tornado passed south of Boonville, the county seat of Warrick County, a teenage girl was killed in a vehicle. In the community of DeGonia Springs, three persons in a mobile home were killed. One of the victims was a woman who was 8-months pregnant. From the north side of Newburgh to DeGonia Springs, houses were severely damaged or destroyed, and vehicles were tossed. Some of the tornado victims were moved 40 feet or more. The tornado passed just to the south of Tennyson before exiting into Spencer County.

Wider weather episode

This was the deadliest tornado in Indiana since April 3, 1974. This tornado tracked a total of 41 miles from Henderson County, KY into Spencer County, IN. A total of at least 500 homes and buildings were destroyed or severely damaged. Much of the damage was upper F-2 to lower F-3 intensity. Although the tornado was up to 500 yards wide, the average path width was 275 yards. Of the approximately 230 injuries, 20 were critical, and 63 resulted in hospital admissions. This tornado was the more northern tornado of a pair of strong supercell tornadoes that occurred simultaneously. The southern tornado occurred in Crittenden and Webster Counties of Kentucky.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.9500, -87.4667)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5480598. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.