Northern Indiana

Weather Forecast Office

August 20, 2016 Tornadoes in Northern Indiana

Overview

A seasonably strong cold front approached the area during the afternoon hours of August 20, 2016. Showers with isolated thunderstorms developed ahead of this front and moved through northern Indiana, southwest lower Michigan and northwest Ohio. Although the showers and isolated storms mainly produced gusty sub-severe winds and heavy rainfall, a few storms produced isolated wind damage and two weak tornadoes.

A National Weather Service damage survey team from this office was dispatched to investigate storm damage across southeast Elkhart, northeast Allen County and northwestern Kosciusko County in Indiana. Three EF-0 tornadoes briefly touched down in these locations, and details regarding these tornadoes can be found below. Aside from the tornadoes and isolated wind damage reports in Allen County, IN and Jay County, most of the showers and isolated thunderstorms produced little to no damage. There were several reports of funnel clouds associated with showers in Huntington, Wells, Allen counties in Indiana, and Defiance county in Ohio.

Tornadoes Overview
Syracuse, IN Tornado
Fort Wayne Tornado
Milford, IN Tornado
Environment

Tornadoes:

Tornado 1: 1 mile NE of Syracuse, IN
Elkhart County

Date	August 20, 2016
Time (Local)	3:19-3:20 PM EDT
EF Rating	EF0
Est. Peak Winds	65-70 mph
Path Length	0.1 miles
Max Width	50 yards
Injuries/Deaths	0
Summary: A brief EF-0 tornado touched down just west of CR 133 south of US-6 in southeast Elkhart county. The tornado caused minor structural damage to two homes, snapped limbs of multiple trees, and flattened corn in a field before lifting roughly one minute and one tenth of a mile east northeast of where the tornado touched down.

Track Map

Tornado 2: 8 miles NE of Fort Wayne, IN
Allen County

Date	August 20, 2016
Time (Local)	5:42-5:49 PM EDT
EF Rating	EF0
Est. Peak Winds	65-75 mph
Path Length	2.4 miles
Max Width	70 yards
Injuries/Deaths	0
Summary: An EF-0 tornado touched down just to the south of the intersection of Flutter and Young Roads in north central Allen county Indiana. The tornado caused damage to large tree limbs in this area along with an extensive area of flattened corn. Weak convergence of the crop damage in spots suggested rotation. Sporadic damage continued to the northeast with a pine tree uprooted at a residence on Eby Road, or about a 1 mile northeast of the touchdown location. A nearby residence on Eby Road also had minor shingle damage. Approximately 1.3 miles to the northeast of the Eby Road damage, a wooden swing set structure from the backyard was pushed to the front of the yard at a residence on Notestine Road. Cuts in the yard suggested the swing set rolled or bounced from the backyard to the front yard. The tornado lifted approximately 2.4 miles northeast from the touchdown location.

Track Map

Tornado 3: 5 miles SW of Milford, IN
Kosciusko County

Date	August 20, 2016
Time (Local)	2:53-2:57 PM EDT
EF Rating	EF0
Est. Peak Winds	65 mph
Path Length	1.6 miles
Max Width	10 yards
Injuries/Deaths	0
Summary: A flyover of farm land southwest of Milford revealed a sporadic path of damage through several soy bean and corn fields. The circulation was found to touch down in a field on North County Road 425 West, about a half mile north of West County Road 900 North. An erratic pattern was observed in the crops suggesting a weak, disorganized circulation was in contact with the ground at times, crossing West County Road 1000 N and N County Road 300 West before dissipating. At the present time, the EF scale does not identify any crops as a Damage Indicator (used to determine the intensity of the tornado) and no other objects were impacted. Given the evidence of a weak tornado, this will be classified as a EF-0 with maximum winds of 65 mph.

Track Map

The Enhanced Fujita (EF) Scale classifies tornadoes into the following categories:

EF0 Weak 65-85 mph	EF1 Moderate 86-110 mph	EF2 Significant 111-135 mph	EF3 Severe 136-165 mph	EF4 Extreme 166-200 mph	EF5 Catastrophic 200+ mph

Radar Loop -Syracuse

KIWX Radar Loop from 3:15 - 3:22 PM EDT on 8/20/2016

This radar loop contains reflectivity and storm relative velocity. The small red square in the image is the location of the tornado touchdown. The second frame of the loop, roughly 3:17 PM EDT, shows very subtle rotation just west of the touchdown location. The next frame, at approximately 3:20 PM EDT, continues to show a subtle rotational couplet, just as the tornado had lifted. The tornado touched down and lifted within a period of one radar scan. Notice the rotational couplet is in the middle of the highest reflectivity, which would make the tornado rain-wrapped and hard to see. This radar feature is so subtle and shallow that it would likely not have been resolved if it were located further away from the radar, but was visible at only 5.5 miles away from the radar.

Photos - Syracuse


Minor shingle and siding damage to a residence	Large healthy tree branch snapped	Tree branches snapped and thrown away from tree grove

Tree damage and bent corn	Flattened corn where the tornado lifted	Multiple tops/branches of trees snapped off

Radar Loop - Fort Wayne

KIWX Radar Loop from 5:35 - 5:50 PM EDT on 8/20/2016

This radar loop contains reflectivity, storm relative velocity, correlation coefficient (CC) and normalized rotation (NROT). The small yellow square in the image is roughly the location of the tornado touchdown and the small yellow cross is roughly the location where the tornado lifted. Broad rotation noted on the first frame of the image quickly tightened into a stronger gate to gate couplet by the fourth frame, right around the time of touchdown. In the fourth and fifth frames, a noted reduction in the CC values co-located with the velocity couplet indicates debris being lofted into the air. The rotation weakens by the sixth and seventh frames, right around the time that the tornado lifted. Several reports of funnel clouds continued as the storm moved northeast through Grabill, with reports of the funnel nearly reaching the ground. However, no damage was reported northeast of the tornado track.

Photos - Fort Wayne


Courtesy of WANE-TV - Wooden swing set carried across the yard and tipped over	Courtesy of WANE-TV - Flattened corn	Courtesy of WANE-TV - Power pole slightly bent

Courtesy of WANE-TV - Tree branches snapped	Courtesy of WANE-TV - Large tree limb snapped	Courtesy of WANE-TV - Scattered small limbs, part of a downed large limb, and damage to an electrical fixture.

Radar Loop - Milford

KIWX Radar Loop from 3:15 - 3:22 PM EDT on 8/20/2016

This radar loop contains reflectivity and storm relative velocity. The small red square in the image is the location of the tornado touchdown. The second frame of the loop, roughly 3:17 PM EDT, shows very subtle rotation just west of the touchdown location. The next frame, at approximately 3:20 PM EDT, continues to show a subtle rotational couplet, just as the tornado had lifted. The tornado touched down and lifted within a period of one radar scan. Notice the rotational couplet is in the middle of the highest reflectivity, which would make the tornado rain-wrapped and hard to see. This radar feature is so subtle and shallow that it would likely not have been resolved if it were located further away from the radar, but was visible at only 5.5 miles away from the radar.

Photo - Milford


Minor shingle and siding damage to a residence	Large healthy tree branch snapped	Tree branches snapped and thrown away from tree grove

Environment

A cold front was near the border of Indiana and Illinois at 3pm August 20. Surface temperatures were only in the low to upper 70s, however dewpoint temperatures were near 70 degrees. The environment was only modestly unstable, with SBCAPE values in the 1000-1500 j/kg range. Higher dewpoints and a moist boundary layer yielded LCL's in the 500-750 m range. Although deep layer flow was not all that impressive, with SFC-6 km bulk shear values around 30 knots, low level flow was quite high, with SFC-1 km bulk shear values 20 to 25 knots. 0-1 km SRH values ranged from 150-200 m2/s2 across the area. The combination of modest instability, high 0-1 km shear/helicity, high surface dewpoints and low LCL's supported weak tornado development.


Figure 1: Surface Temperature, Dewpoint, Pressure 300pm August 20	Figure 2: Surface Based CAPE 300pm August 20	Figure 3: Lifting Condensation Levels 300pm August 20

Figure 4: 0-1 km Bulk Shear 300pm August 20	Figure 5: 0-6 km Bulk Shear 300pm August 20	Figure 6: 0-1 km Storm Relative Helicity 300pm August 20

SPC Products


Figure 7: SPC Day 1 Convective Outlook 800am August 20	Figure 8: Mesoscale Discussion #1569 213pm August 20	Figure 9: Mesoscale Discussion Text 213pm August 20

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Weekend Showers and Thunderstorms Over the Southeast U.S.

August 20, 2016 Tornadoes in Northern Indiana