Statistics show Putnam County twisters remain a rarity

From torrential rains to hail the size of pingpong balls to lingering lightning and thunder, weather has definitely dominated the Hoosier landscape and newsfront in recent days.

A soggy June has rolled over into a stormy July. Floodwaters persist. Thoughts too often have turned to Noah. Arks even ...

And now, the first legitimate confirmed Putnam County tornado in more than a dozen years has been verified in the Groveland/Heritage Lake area. Monday night a low-end EF-1 tornado with winds reaching 90 mph spawned multiple touchdowns around the northeast side of the lake.

The twister damaged a reported 16 homes, three incurring major damage, with minor or moderate storm damage to the others.

Occurring at 9:15 p.m. Monday, the EF-1 tornado was reported as 70-100 feet wide by local witnesses and 50 yards wide by the National Weather Service. It was reportedly on the ground for two-tenths of a mile while touching down at least twice.

So despite all of that, one question remains: How frequently does Putnam County actually experience a confirmed tornado?

Rarely, according to the Indianapolis office of the National Weather Service. In fact, before Monday, NWS statistics listed only 18 confirmed tornadoes occurring in Putnam County since Jan. 1, 1950.

And the last two of those -- May 21, 2013 near Barnard and Oct. 7, 2014 at Cloverdale -- can hardly be called tornadoes since both were the EF-0 variety (winds 80 mph or less).

The last official twister of more than EF-0 reported in Putnam County occurred July 8, 2003 near Bainbridge. That was the storm that did significant damage to the Mark Timm residence and other structures along and around U.S. 36 at the west end of Bainbridge.

Overall, National Weather Service figures list the previous 18 reported Putnam tornadoes as responsible for $3.96 million in property damage, causing one death (June 2, 1990) and 10 injuries (seven coming in a May 10, 1969 twister).

In Greencastle, the latest official tornado to strike within the city limits was reported on Aug. 23, 2002 when the storm caused an estimated $200,000 damage.

Multiple tornadoes within the same year are also rare locally.

Only three times since 1950 has Putnam County experienced more than one twister in a year -- in 1988, 1989 and 2003. All three of those years two tornadoes were reported in the county.

Meanwhile, the time of day and time of year tornadoes have struck locally also yield interesting details offered by the NWS.

Best chance for a tornado in Putnam County? Early evening in the month of May.

Eight of the 18 storms since 1950 have hit between 5:15 and 6:45 p.m., while four times twisters arrived locally between 1 and 2 p.m.

Overall, those numbers work out to make 2:07 p.m. the average time for a Putnam tornado occurrence.

The earliest time of day that a tornado has been reported locally was at 1:29 a.m. for the 2013 Barnard storm. Meanwhile, the latest was at 8:45 p.m. Oct. 17, 1988.

The earliest date of a tornado striking the area came on March 20, 1976, while the latest Putnam County twister reported in any year was the Dec. 11, 1967 storm (another late-season storm occurred Nov. 22, 1992).

Meteorologists will tell you a tornado can develop during any month of the year. In Putnam County over the past 65 years, that's almost true. We've seen tornadoes occur every month except January, February, April and oddly, September.

Five twisters have hit in May, three in June and August and two during July and October.

Unfortunately until 1993, the NWS tornado stats only list the storm location as Putnam County. From 1993 on, the list at least pinpoints a town as the location (1993 in Putnamville, 2002 in Greencastle, 2003 in Cloverdale and Bainbridge, 2013 in Barnard and 2014 in Cloverdale).

The list also does not include the devastating August 1990 Downburst that struck Greencastle, destroying the Presbyterian Church in a lightning-sparked fire and downing hundreds of trees. That storm damage was determined to have been from straight-line winds.

Also missing from the Putnam County tornado list are the March 26, 1948 Good Friday twister that destroyed much of the town of Coatesville, killing 14 people, and the fabled Palm Sunday tornado of April 11, 1965 that thankfully somehow missed Putnam County but spawned 47 tornadoes statewide as the deadliest tornado in Hoosier history (137 deaths and 1,200 injuries).