Look to the skies, tornado season on the horizon

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With Indiana coming off a year which spawned 54 tornadoes statewide, Severe Weather Awareness Week might be a good time to keep your eyes on the skies.

While most of us will be looking up for the April 8 total eclipse, the period March through July is prime time for watching out for funnel cloud rotation in our midst.

After all, Severe Weather Preparedness Week -- you may have heard the tornado sirens going off Thursday afternoon in Greencastle -- comes to a close Saturday with the sobering notion that 2023 produced the second most confirmed tornadoes in Hoosier history.

National Weather Service (NWS) records indicate Indiana averages 22 tornadoes a year with the greatest three-month stretch occurring April, May and June. Typically April sees four twisters, May six and June five.

Occurrences start to dwindle with July averaging three and August two but be aware, tornadoes can and will strike in any month. Indiana records show tornadoes have occurred in every month of the year.

Despite all those Hoosier tornadoes last year, Putnam County dodged the proverbial bullet. In fact, Putnam County has been weathering the storm since 2003 when the last significant local twister occurred on July 8 near Bainbridge. That was the storm that did substantial damage to the Mark Timm residence and other structures along and around U.S. 36 at the west edge of Bainbridge.

Nationally, Indiana ranks 15th in tornado frequency, as well as sixth in tornado-related deaths, seventh in injuries and second overall for the cost of damages.

Not surprisingly, Tippecanoe County has had the most documented tornadoes in the state since 1950 with 50. Marion County stands second with 45.

So that begs the question: How frequently does Putnam County actually experience a confirmed tornado?

The answer, according to records kept by the Weather Service, is rarely.

In fact, those statistics list only 20 twisters being confirmed in Putnam County over the period between Jan. 1, 1950 and the present. That’s 20 twisters in 74 years.

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

It’s been more than eight years since the last official tornadoes were reported in Putnam County. That’s when two minor EF-1 tornadoes touched down in Groveland two minutes apart on July 13, 2015. Combined, the two storms luckily accounted for only $55,000 damage.

Overall, NWS figures show those 20 reported Putnam tornadoes as responsible for $3.96 million in total property damage, resulting in one death (June 2, 1990) and 10 injuries (seven of which came in a May 10, 1969 twister).

Since 1950 the county has experienced more than one twister in a year only four times. Those instances came in 1988, 1989, 2003 and 2015, the latter when the two minor tornadoes occurred at Groveland.

Statistics from the Weather Service also list the times when twisters were reported.

Seven of the 20 Putnam storms have occurred in the early evening -- between 5:15 and 6:45 p.m. -- while four times twisters have hit locally between 1 and 2 p.m.

By time, the earliest local tornado reported came at 11:35 a.m. on May 10, 1969, while the latest twister arrived at 8:45 p.m. on Oct. 17, 1988.

The most likely time for a Putnam tornado occurrence? Overall, the times average out to make zero hour 2:27 p.m.

Meanwhile, the earliest date for a tornado to strike the Putnam County area was March 20 in 1976, while the latest twister reported in any year since 1950 was the Dec. 11, 1967 storm (another late-season storm occurred Nov. 22, 1992, causing major crop and farm building damage around the Russellville area).

Tornado records also note that the most Indiana twisters occurring in one day came during the aforementioned June 2, 1990 storm that caused eight deaths and 220 injuries over a 31-county path of destruction.

June 1990 also produced the record for the most Indiana tornadoes occurring in one month at 44, while 1990 holds the record for most in a year at 49.

The most tornado-related deaths in a single event came on April 11, 1965 as the famed Palm Sunday outbreak spawned 11 tornadoes over 20 counties (including one southeast of Crawfordsville), taking the lives of 137 Hoosiers and injuring 1,200.

Meanwhile, the largest path ever recorded was the 250-mile swath produced by an April 3, 1974 tornado that covered 250 miles and affected three states.

Unfortunately, the NWS stats for 1950-1993 only list the storm locations only 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 2015 in Groveland).

If you were wondering about the devastating August 1990 storm that struck Greencastle, uprooting dozens of trees and causing the fire that destroyed the Presbyterian Church on College Avenue, it was never deemed a tornado. Calling it a “downburst,” the NWS determined the damage to be from strong straight-line winds.

Also missing from the 1950-2024 twister compilation is the March 26, 1948 Good Friday tornado that destroyed much of the town of Coatesville (just across the line in Hendricks County), killing 14 people.