Families of Funnels & Tennis Ball Size Hail Strike North of Lafayette

While Lafayette was spared a repeat performance as expected last night, it was anything but routine in our northern counties. In this pattern we knew that not only thunderstorms could form, but they could turn severe in an instant and that is exactly what happened. This was sent in by Roger Ness and Nick Clayton right at the Interstate 65 and State Road 24 Exit. It was one of at least two funnel clouds spotted in the Remington area on Wednesday evening. There were several more funnel sightings in Benton County. Take a look at one of the other ones captured just to the northwest of Talbot. Kyle and Nicole sent this my way and apparently it was one of at least three funnels they saw.

They said it may have briefly touched down. Here is what the Benton Emergency Management director had to say.

NWS issued a Tornado Warning at 20:14 (8:14 ET), for a cell expected to reach the area around 21:00 (9:00). The Tornado warning siren in Earl Park was sounded at 20:20. As the suspect cell entered western Benton County at 20:52, directly west of Earl Park, a distinct wall cloud formation with rotation was identified by two train spotters. The wall cloud produced several instances of rotating funnel clouds in a short period of time, though none developed or approached the ground. The EP siren was again sounded. Newton County was also notified by Benton EMA of the situation approaching them. The system continued moving to the north, out of Benton County by 21:12 (9:12 ET). No damage has been report at this time.

The good news is that most of these funnels apparently stayed in the sky. There was only one confirmed tornado last night that was reported by the Chicago National Weather Service. The tornado touched down 3 miles east of Rensselaer. The best news of all was that nobody was hurt or injured and the tornado touched down in an open field. This is just how us Hoosiers like our tornadoes. The other big story was incredible hail that hit the area near Francesville and Medaryville. Here was the TENNIS BALL SIZE HAIL sent in by Larry and Lisa Brady.

These monster hailstones fell just southeast of Medaryville along state road 14 and 1100 West in Pulaski County. You know you have strong storms when hail gets this large. It takes tremendous updrafts to allow chunks of ice this large to grow. Right along the Pulaski-Jasper County line the thunderstorm that dropped the largest hail pictures I have seen in at least two years in our area also produced a funnel. This funnel may have briefly touched down as a tornado, but the Sheriff's Department could not confirm this. There was plenty of damage done to cars. Cars had cracked windshields and were badly dented. Homes were pummeled and had plenty of roof and siding damage. Get ready insurance companies for a big post-storm damage assessment. The Bradys' show us another picture of how nature turned Pulaski county into its very own driving range.

Here in Lafayette we were counting our blessings and we could see the power of nature in awe from a distance. Monty Sloan treats us to one of his vintage pictures out at Wolf Park last night.

We finally have a break in nature's fireworks for all of us today and it could not come soon enough. We have a July high taking over our pattern. This will push the battle zone to our north and west just like we see during our summer months. Check out the map below.

So if any storms do fire up by late Friday and over the weekend, they will be more of those typical summertime thunderstorms that do not last very long nor create hours and hours of severe weather warnings. This does depend on how much this Bermuda high builds into the area and this forecast could still change. I will have more on this tonight on the news. Our first 90 degree day looks to be today and it arrived just about right on cue. Our average first 90 degree day in Lafayette over the past 10 years is June 3rd. Will this hot weather be a sign of things to come for the rest of our summer? I will have these and more answers coming your way. Have a great day!