tornado history in southern indiana

Southern Indiana tornado history
Three days ago, on March 2nd, several tornadoes struck southern Indiana. Washington, Jefferson, Ripley, Clark and Scott counties were affected, and more than 14 people were killed.
These were certainly not the first twisters to hit the region, nor were they the worst. Here is a list of some of the deadliest tornadoes in Indiana history: The ‘Tri-State Tornado’ struck in March, 1925, sweeping from southern Missouri to southwestern Indiana at more than 200 miles per hour. More than 730 people were killed across the two states, while more than half of Princeton was wiped out. In April of 1965, Palm Sunday saw ten tornadoes strike Indiana. This disaster was the most deadly in the state’s history, causing more than 137 casualties and 1,700 injuries, as well as over $30 million in property damage.

As a result, the state worked to develop more efficient tornado safety plans. In 1974, more than twenty tornadoes struck in April, killing at least fifty citizens and injuring more than one thousand, a tragic but significant improvement on earlier crises. Sixteen years later, in June of 1990, no less than 37 tornadoes struck Indiana, affecting 31 counties and killing at least ten people in Petersburg and Bedford. In November of 2005, more than 22 people were killed by a tornado in Vanderburgh and Warrick counties, also in southwestern Indiana. Last Friday's raging storms brought back bad memories of the tornadoes that struck Indiana in April 1974. Known as the "Super Outbreak", that storm system is viewed as a benchmark by forecasters. "That outbreak alone helped fuel, kinda, the push to improve on not

only tornado forecasting but forecasting of severe thunderstorms," says meteorologist Mike Ryan at the National Weather Service office in Indianapolis. He says that improvement has been accomplished through the training of weather spotters, better coordination with emergency managers and local responders and the availability of Doppler radar.
"Doppler radar came on in the late 80s and early 90s and allowed us to be able to look inside of a storm on a one-dimensional plane," said Ryan. "See what was going on within that storm, see if there was rotation, what was the freezing level--that could give us an idea of the potential of hail out of that storm. "He also points to more detailed computer models." We can look at the environment that is being forecast," he said. "Look at different parameters and see the potential for the amounts of shear, of turning winds in the atmosphere, potential for instability and things of that nature."