Webcam captures tordano(s) sweeping through Indianapolis

The Indy 500 race was cut short by severe weather earlier today. (Sun. 5/30)

Now there are at least one, possibly two funnels on the ground.





The above webcam images show the huge funnel on the ground.

Apparently a nursing home was hit by a twister, tearing the roof off and trapping some of the patients inside. Details are still trickling in....



[Edited on 30-5-2004 by Banshee]

I'm in Lafayette (about an hour north of Indy), and a tornado just touched down a couple miles east of me. Good thing it's headed east!

Purdue, if you're still on get in the basement.

* TORNADO WARNING FOR...
NORTHWESTERN CLINTON COUNTY IN CENTRAL INDIANA
SOUTHERN CARROLL COUNTY IN NORTH CENTRAL INDIANA
TIPPECANOE COUNTY IN WEST CENTRAL INDIANA
THIS INCLUDES THE CITY OF LAFAYETTE

* UNTIL 830 PM EST

the weather that interrupted indy was a pain in the butt even from my lounge room so far away lol.

i do remeber thinking how scary it would be if a tornado passed over the brickyard.

apparently there's been tornados all over indiana as there's been a couple in southern indiana and kentucky recently and today...

and there's MORE bad weather coming our way...

glad its all missed me. had hail just north of me and a tornadic weather just south of me.

I'm in the safest place I've got - middle of the house, no windows. I'm watching the Doppler, looks like we're okay for now. The tornado (there may have been 2) was an F1, lasted about 15 minutes, and started NE of me and moved off in that direction. Emergency Management is reporting some damage, but it doesn't sound too bad.

I'm in monon 45 min north of laffette it dont look good!!!!

Thanks a lot ya'll

You are freaking me out here. All of this mess is headed right for us. And the tornado wach for our area was just posted.

Oh well it should be a great show. I really like storms but just the ones without TORNADOS!

Gazz

That's amazing about all those twisters forming in the midwest (Indiana to Kentucky) right after I saw "The Day after Tomorrow" which showed LA being devistated by multiple Super tornados. Glad I don't live in tornado states. I only have to deal with rarely erupting volcanoes.

Man.... I am out of town right now and was watching tv here and saw a news report about where a tornado was reported at. It is where I live at. Called my dad and he was really worried because he heard the tornado went through my neighborhood. I wont be back until Tuesday so I have no idea how things look.

i hope everything turns out ok for you. remember tornados can devastate one side of the street and leave the other side as it was. so there is a good chance your house is OK.

The area where I live isnt the greatest. I have insurance so all is well. OH wait... my computer is at home on the 2nd floor. OMG. lol. There is another picture on the website that has the webcams. It shows what appears to be a wedge tornado. Those are nasty buggers.

www.wthr.com...

I wish the pic was a little clearer so I could get a better idea exactly where it went. It would break my heart to have to move from that neighborhood. Ok... maybe it wouldnt lol

Around 40 nursing home residents were taken to the hospital after the home's roof either caved in or was torn off by a twister.
Link
One person died in southern IN.
More



Indy, let us know how things turn out.

Will do. Saw on the Weather Channel that this May could challenge the record for tornados for the month. Old record was set last year. Today's action brings the monthly total to over 500.

Ok got home today. My street was untouched but same cannot be said a block or two down the road where the tornado went through. Had the twister been a bit stronger we would have been without phone service for better than 6 months since the tornado hit the telephone company central office where the dial tone is supplied at. My neighbor said the air was very still and it was fully of pieces of stuff flying around. Sigh. I always miss all the fun.

Glad everything is okay, Indy!!!
*whew*
I know you joked about not being disappointed if it'd been hit, but that would've been a horrible thing to go through.
A block away, though....damn. Kinda close for comfort, isn't it?

Yeah it is kinda freaky. My cat destroyed a few blinds in the house. That was the only damage. LOL. Just a slight wobble in the path and the thing would have come over my place. This 100 year old piece of crap house wouldn't have stood a chance. A couple of years ago an F3 came a few miles away as well. These were F2's and F3's over the past few years. People have been lucky. Unlike years past these storms didn't hit a barn out in the country. They came through a south suburb. I dont want to be too intrusive but If I can get close enough I'll take some pictures. As much as I dont like my neighborhood I wouldnt want 10,000 people driving down my street taking pictures of my wrecked house. But then again they'll do it anyway so why don't I? :-)

Ok so, a question to everyone living in tornado states and have been there for some time. So are you having more tornadoes now than, less say 5 to 15 years ago? Is the weather worse than 5-15 years ago, the same, better?

Honestly its really hard to say. Now I will say we are getting more and more rain each year. This May we finished with over 8 inches of rain. Seems the last several years here have been rainy. Now when it comes to tornados it is hard to tell. Back in 1974 there was a massive outbreak that some figured may never be eclipised. Last 2 years alone there have been outbreaks that surpassed the total from the super outbreak. The event this weekened happened over 48 hours but I believe the total for the weekend was some 170 or so tornados. Now the reason its hard to compare now to then is the invention of doppler radar. Now a tornado gets counted (I think) just by being picked up on radar. Correct me if I am wrong but I don't believe all 170+ twisters this weekend were visual confirmations. How many twisters went unreported back in 1974? No way of telling. The past few years do seem to have a high number of reports but it will take a decade or two of additional data to tell how we really rank. One thing that has happened of late (in the past 5 to 10 years) that has never happened before was a massive tornado outbreak in Florida. Florida does have them and in numbers but they are usually F0 to F1. A number of years ago the state had a huge outbreak of large twisters. Largest reported being an F4. A friend of the family lost their house as a result of that F4. The pictures from the area looked more like something from Kansas and not from central Florida. Also recent years has brought a number of direct strikes on metropolitan areas. Oklahoma City was a famous one with the most powerful twister ever recorded. There was also a direct hit on Nashville, Salt Lake City and I think Dallas (or one of the texas towns). Those were hits on downtown areas.

But to me more impressive than the twister reports has been the instances of severe hail. The record for the largest hail stone was set in the past year. Also the freak hail events where large quantities of hail get dropped have been reported. In November of 2003 a storm dumped knee deep hail in Watts, California. Similar storms hit parts of Indiana and Illinois a year or two ago. Also a decade ago or so a storm hit central Florida that dumped 3 feet of hail. Strange thing is that area got hit by a similar storm 1 month later.

Sorry about rambling.

Storm damage reports available here.

www.spc.noaa.gov...