Tornado

2023-05-12

Something unusual happened at IU Southeast: a tornado. This was at about 9am on Sunday, May 7, 2023.

I live about a mile and a half from campus (as the crow flies). That morning, we had a severe thunderstorm. I was surprised at how strong the storm appeared: the sky was very dark, and there was a lot of wind. Also plenty of lightning, although this appeared to be to the north (not much thunder at my place). A severe thunderstorm warning appeared as the storm was in progress.

A short while later, email and text notifications appeared from the university warning of hazardous conditions on campus due to storm damage, and advising us to not go to campus. I was curious enough to disregard the warning and head to campus with my camera.

I went up to campus on the usual route (Klerner Lane to Grant Line Road), and saw that not only was the entrance to campus blocked off, Grant Line Road itself was closed.

I then went around the long way to the south side of campus, which was open. I was able to drive in and park in the usual lot close to my building.

I walked around my building with my camera to see the damage.

The damage was mainly on the other side of my building (the north side of the building), and there was plenty of damage: about eight mature trees were down, and there was damage to the roof of my office building (Life Sciences).

I walked further north and west to see the other end of campus, and I was struck to see there was little damage on that end of campus. It became clear the damage was focused on a relatively small part of campus around my building. I didn't notice at first, but the downed trees were pointing in different directions. I was not surprised to learn later that afternoon that the National Weather Service had determined we had an EF1 tornado with 105mph winds.

I also learned why Grant Line Road was closed: traffic lights and utility poles were damaged or broken. And what I couldn't see from campus was the damage to the apartments across the street: One building had half of its roof torn completely off—drone photographs showed views into people's apartments from above.

The weather service determined the tornado had actually formed over my office building; it dissipated past the apartments, with a total track about 100 yards wide and 0.35 miles long. It was a "spin-up" tornado, which severe thunderstorms sometimes produce. It turns out there were five different tornadoes in my county that morning, all EF0 or EF1: Tornadoes and Severe Storms from May 7, 2023

Notice the strip of roofing in the lawn (right of center):

Notice the tree damage on the right edge of the frame: The top half of the tree was snapped off by the tornado.