EF3 Tornado — Wells, Indiana

2019-05-27 · near Mc Natts, Wells, Indiana

Event narrative

The same supercell that produced a tornado in Grant

County moved east and underwent several storm mergers as it moved

over eastern Grant County. The merger caused the thunderstorm to

shift southeastwards with time before mirroring the Blackford and

Wells County lines. This thunderstorm produced a tornado with

multiple vortices, and had a width of approximately 1200 yards at

its widest. This tornado tracked from north of Roll, IN to north of

Montpelier, IN to near Nottingham, IN. The tornado lifted just east

of Highway 1. There were two significant injuries reported at a

dairy farm where EF-3 damage occurred. EF-3 damage was observed in two locations. The first was at a dairy

farm on county road 700 West north of the county line. A well built

structure sustained major damage consistent with winds of 165 mph.

Numerous other buildings at this location sustained significant

damage and several cows also died. Further east, about 1 mile east

of county road 500 west, a large power transmission tower was

toppled in the middle of a field. Winds were estimated at 140 mph at

this location. Numerous other buildings sustained EF-0 to EF-1

damage and some EF-2 damage was also observed. Many trees were

topped or uprooted all along the path of this tornado.

Wider weather episode

A warm front surged north across the region, allowing for a moderately unstable, highly sheared environment to exist. Thunderstorms developed in Illinois and moved into northern Indiana, producing damaging winds and several tornadoes.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (40.5770, -85.3920)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 831606. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.