Rewinding in time back to Indiana’s largest tornado outbreak
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — On June 2, 1990, an intense and widespread tornado outbreak took place across parts of the midwest and Ohio valley. Indiana would wind up being at the epicenter of this destructive event. Keep in mind throughout this article that the old F-scale was being used to rate tornadoes instead of the current EF-scale.
It was a rather unusual tornado season up to the time frame of June 1990 in which mid-March featured violent tornadic activity in the Great Plains and upper midwest. April and May would be closer to normal for tornadoes, but it wasn’t too much longer before another major system came into play.
On the morning of June 2, an unseasonably powerful low pressure system sat in eastern North Dakota. This system would easily help draw in warm air with temperatures rising into the upper 70s to low 80s. Along with the warm air, fairly high amounts of moisture became present as well with dew points surging into the upper 60s to low 70s. Winds aloft would also gradually strengthen later into the afternoon and evening hours.
With the aforementioned ingredients coming together, it was only a matter of time before explosive activity took off. A public severe weather outlook was issued at 11 AM EST in which rare heightened wording was used. The outlook stated that an outbreak of severe thunderstorms was expected across portions of the Great Lakes, Ohio & Mississippi valleys. It went on to further state that these storms were expected to produce destructive tornadoes, damaging winds, and large hail.
Activity got started shortly after 11:30 AM EST in Iowa, but it would take a few hours before more potent storms formed. By 5 PM EST, a strong cold front was leading way to prolific supercells in Illinois. Over the next two hours, several strong to violent tornadoes were spawned. This included two F4’s that would hit Rinard and Newton, Illinois. At 6:20 PM EST, the longest tracked tornado of the day touched down near Aden, IL and was on the ground for a staggering 106 miles to Huron, IN. This devastating F4 would produce immense damage in-and-near cities such as Mt. Carmel, IL, Hazleton and Petersburg, IN. One person was killed in Browns, Illinois from this tornado.
East central IL and west central IN also got in on the action as a cluster of tornadoes took place from 5-7 PM EST. This included several F2’s near Dana, St. Bernice, and Crawfordsville, IN.
Meanwhile, south of this western IN cluster, things continued to go downhill as more intense to violent tornadoes would form. Here were some of the more notable events in Indiana from 6-10 PM EST:
- Loogootee: Martin County – F3
- Switz City: Greene County – F2
- Bedford: Lawrence County – F4 (1 death)
- Petersburg: Pike County – F4 (6 deaths)
- New Maysville-North Salem: Putnam & Hendricks Co. – F2 (1 death)
- Clear Spring-Seymour: Jackson County – F4
- Millport-Lancaster: Washington, Jackson, Scott, & Jefferson Co. – F3
The deadliest tornado of the day would take place shortly after 7:15 PM EST when a violent F4 destroyed half of the town of Petersburg, and this also included the leveling of the Petersburg mayor’s home. Six people died in what would be at the time the deadliest tornado in Indiana since the 1974 super outbreak. The final F4 of the entire outbreak would strike just barely north of the downtown Cincinnati area (Hamilton county, Ohio). Up to 800-900 homes would be damaged in Hamilton county alone with 32 of them reported being destroyed.
When it was all said and done, 66 tornadoes in total occurred with 37 of them taking place in Indiana alone. Seven of the 66 tornadoes were rated F4. Nine people overall were tragically lost in this outbreak. This tornado outbreak set records for Indiana in terms of tornadoes in a day (37) and in a month (44, June 1990). One could argue this is the set benchmark for tornado outbreaks in this state. The top five Indiana tornado outbreaks for instance are as follows:
- 37: June 2, 1990
- 30: November 17, 2013
- 29: April 19, 2011
- 24: May 30, 2004
- 22: May 25, 2011