At least 7 tornadoes hit Indiana, National Weather Service says. Here's where.

Brittany Carloni, Indianapolis Star
·2 min read
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At least seven tornadoes hit communities across Central Indiana on Friday night into Saturday, the National Weather Service in Indianapolis said Saturday afternoon – a number that could well grow as crews continue to investigate.

Sullivan County in west central Indiana has EF 3-level damage, NWS science operations officer David Beachler told IndyStar. Winds reached up to 165 mph there, the weather service said Saturday evening as it began releasing preliminary results from its crews' surveys.

Two tornadoes have been preliminarily identified in Johnson County, which is just south of Indianapolis: an EF2 with peak winds of 135 mph in Whiteland and an EF0 with peak winds of 85 mph south of Bargersville.

North of Indianapolis, at least three tornadoes are believed to have struck in Howard County: two EF0 tornadoes with peak winds of 80 mph in the southwest part of the county, and an EF1 with peak winds at 110 mph in the southeast part of the county. In addition, an EF1 with peak winds at 110 mph has been preliminarily identified in Clinton County.

Three survey crews from the NWS were in Sullivan, Howard and Johnson counties Saturday, Crystal Pettet, a meteorologist with NWS Indianapolis, told IndyStar Saturday morning.

The weather service expects to do more surveying Sunday, Beachler said. One community they hope to visit then is Martinsville, the agency posted on its Facebook page Saturday evening.

Indiana weather: Whiteland takes 'direct hit' during overnight storms, several homes destroyed

How NWS determines a tornado touchdown

Trained spotters across Central Indiana help the National Weather Service gather information about storms during and after severe weather events, Pettet said.

Those spotters report information to meteorologists, who also look at radar data and other videos or photos sent to the NWS, Pettet explained.

Additionally, survey crews from NWS go out after a storm and meet with emergency managers from communities that have damage to examine what damage happened and where it occurred.

The survey crews look for indicators of rotation in areas with damage, which can determine if winds were straight or formed a tornado, Pettet said.

“It’s how we determine the rating and how strong those winds were,” Pettet said.

Contact IndyStar's Carmel and Westfield reporter Brittany Carloni at brittany.carloni@indystar.com or 317-779-4468. Follow her on Twitter @CarloniBrittany.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana tornadoes: At least 7 hit, National Weather Service says