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EF0 tornado in Scott County, Indiana

Tornado October 15, 2021 · Scott County, Indiana

EF0
Rating
0.6 mi
Path length
75 yd
Path width
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 75 yards (0.04 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 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 Louisville conducted a storm damage survey across Scott county, Indiana. The survey team found damage consistent with 80 mph winds in Lexington, Indiana. The tornado began at the Lexington cemetery and continued all the way to the Lexington fire and rescue. The tornado uprooted, twisted, and snapped numerous trees at the cemetery with the trees falling in a northerly, northeasterly, southeasterly, and southwesterly direction. This is where the widest part of the tornado was observed with approximately a 75 yard width.

Several trees were snapped along Charlestown Road with more significant damage along South Stuard Street. A couple of homes had shingle damage and loose items such as gas cans and garden decorations that were thrown 50 yards.

Power crews were working feverishly to restore power all along South Mulberry Street, where trees were thrown in multiple directions and across power lines. Power company workers said that several of the power poles were snapped or cracked.

The tornado continued along South Cherry St. with a very narrow path of only 40 to 50 yards, and lifted around the Lexington Fire and Rescue. Several witnesses told us that they heard windows being opened up and a distinct roar in the air.

The wider storm

During the night, an area of thunderstorms ahead of a cold front, worked its way east through southern Indiana. The environment became more stable and only marginal shear remained. The environment was looking less favorable for severe weather, but a storm on the leading edge of a storm cluster generated its own shear between the northern edge of outflow dominant storms to the south and the environmental winds ahead of the storm. This resulted in a series of isolated quick spin-up type tornadoes that caused isolated damage in Washington and Scott Counties.

Began near Lexington (38.6491, -85.6355).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

1 more tornado the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 989277. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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