EDINBURGH, Ind. — The National Weather Service confirmed three tornadoes touched down in Indiana on Saturday, when strong storms prompted a handful of tornado warnings, pulled trees from the ground and downed powerlines, causing widespread power outages.
The NWS surveyed the affected areas on Sunday and confirmed three tornadoes: An EF-1 in Shelby County and two brief EF-0 tornadoes in Brown and Johnson counties.
The NWS said its survey of the counties took an "extensive amount of time to go through," as the tornado damage was embedded within a broad area that had also been damaged by straight-line winds of up to 90 mph. This created a "rather chaotic" damage presentation, the NWS said.
Brown County: EF-0
The first confirmed tornado was in Brown County. It began at 3:40 p.m. and lasted just two minutes. The NWS said its winds peaked at 84 mph; the parameters for an EF-0 tornado are 65 to 85 mph.
The tornado brought down numerous trees in a convergent pattern through a densely wooded area. Widespread straight-line winds between 80 and 90 mph also uprooted and damaged trees along the tornado's path, which was about a third of a mile long.
Johnson County: EF-0
A second tornado, also with wind speeds of 84 mph, briefly touched down at 3:48 p.m. at Camp Atterbury in Johnson County. The tornado's path was just short of a mile long.
The steeple of a church was blown over and several vehicles were lifted slightly with plywood debris from the roof of the church underneath the tires of the cars.
The NWS said widespread straight-line winds of up to 90 mph created significant uprooted and broken trees within a wide area as well.
Shelby County: EF-1
A third tornado began in Edinburgh at 3:57 p.m. and ended in St. Paul at 4:12 p.m.
The tornado, which had winds up to 110 mph, traveled more than 13 miles. The NWS said the tornado was "skipping" along the entire path.
GALLERY: Strong storms strike Indiana on Saturday, May 21, 2022
The NWS survey noted many trees were either down or uprooted along the path. This area, like with the other tornadoes, had widespread straight-line winds of up to 90 mph that created significant uprooted and broken trees within a wide area, as well as along the tornado's path.