TornadoLookup

Home / Indiana / Scott

EF1 tornado in Scott County, Indiana

Tornado March 1, 2017 · Scott County, Indiana

EF1
Rating
2.1 mi
Path length
125 yd
Path width
10
Injuries
$250K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 125 yards (0.07 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 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

The National Weather Service in conjunction with Scott County Emergency Management, determined an EF-1 Tornado touched down 4 miles south of Scottsburg, on Interstate 65 at approximately mile marker 25.5. After overturning a semi tractor-trailer on the Interstate, the tornado moved east-southeast, collapsed a wall on a large cinder block building, then destroyed two metal outbuildings and flipped an unanchored mobile home on a farmstead 1/4 mile east. It continued skipping east, uprooting and snapping trees and destroying an anchored mobile home on Underwood Road. Three residents were in the home at the time when it rolled over and disintegrated. They received minor injuries. The tornado then damaged an outbuilding and numerous more trees as it headed east toward Double or Nothing Road. Near the intersection of Double or Nothing Road and Radio Tower Road, it destroyed a large garage and pushed a double-wide manufactured home off its foundation. The tornado was embedded in a 1-2 mile wide area of 60 to 80 mph winds that extended further east for over 10 miles, and may have briefly touched down within this area as well.

Within the county, this tornado and two areas of straight-line wind resulted in approximately 23 minor injuries and the closure of seven roadways across the county.

The wider storm

The combination of a moist and unseasonably warm air mass and an approaching low pressure system and cold front brought multiple rounds of severe weather to southern Indiana during the early morning hours on March 1. In the end, there were 5 tornadoes across southern Indiana, the strongest being an EF-2 that tracked through portions of Dubois County. In addition to the tornadoes, there were several areas of intense straight-line winds estimated up to 100 mph in places. The impacts included numerous areas of structural damage and downed trees. The widespread heavy rain brought the Muscatatuck River at Deputy into minor flood.

Began near Vienna (38.6270, -85.7840).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 675721. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

Tornadoes near your address

See every tornado that passed near a place you know, measured to its path.