EF2 tornado in Dubois County, Indiana

The National Weather Service, in conjunction with Dubois County Emergency Management, conducted a damage survey just hours after an overnight tornado touched down in the northwest corner of the county. The EF-2 tornado, with maximum wind speeds of 130 mph, touched down 4.1 miles WSW of Ireland, Indiana. It first destroyed a large pole barn, then moved on to damage several homes near the intersection of county roads 150 North and 875 West.

After damaging several outbuildings, it traveled a mile northeast where it heavily damaged two brick ranch homes on county roads 200 North and 750 West, taking off their roofs and collapsing an outer wall on one. An elderly woman in one of the homes was uninjured despite the roof of her home being torn off and an exterior wall collapsing 15 feet from her. She had been sitting under the only part of the home where the ceiling remained intact after the roof blew away.

The tornado continued skipping east-northeast over primarily open farmland, but gave a glancing blow to the north side of Ireland, where it damaged the roofs of several homes and destroyed a block garage. After skipping over an additional mile of farmland, the twister destroyed a silo and damaged an outbuilding on county road 300 North then snapping several pine trees along a lane before lifting. The maximum path width was 150 yards and it was on the ground for 5 to 6 minutes.

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.