Thunderstorm Wind — Monroe, Indiana

2018-06-01 · near Payne, Monroe, Indiana

Event narrative

WTHR-13 reported that Indiana Conservation officers found the body of 26-year-old man around 7:30pm Sunday the 3rd while searching Monroe Lake with side scan sonar equipment. He was in about 15 feet of water near the area where he had been swimming from his boat.

An Indiana Department of Natural Resources spokesperson said the man was swimming off a pontoon he rented with three friends when he disappeared Friday evening as a thunderstorm with strong winds passed overhead.

Friends say the man was a good swimmer, which might have been why he went into the water without a life jacket. When a storm suddenly kicked up out on the lake though, it was too much for him.

Wider weather episode

Scattered thunderstorms developed across portions of central Indiana during the afternoon hours of June 1st. As these storms pushed generally south or south-southeast, a few of them downed trees, limbs, power lines across locations south of Interstate 70. One of the strong thunderstorms moved across Monroe Lake and a 26-year-old man that was swimming in the lake drowned as the wind and the rain kicked up.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (39.0759, -86.4240)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 769097. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.