A National Weather Service damage survey team confirmed today that an EF-1 tornado touched down near Peru, Indiana July 10. Meteorologists estimate that the twister contained 95 mph winds. It was on the ground for 3.5 miles and lasted only five minutes. See photographs of some of the damage.

The tornado touched down at 1:28 p.m. NWS had not issued tornado warning. The tornado was probably too small to be detected by Doppler radar. NWS did, however, issue a severe thunderstorm warning for the same area at 1:19 p.m., nine minutes before the tornado touched down. NWS had issued a severe thunderstorm watch that included Miami County at 12:35 p.m., 53 minutes for the tornado touched down.

Thunderstorm warning issued at 1:19 p.m. Covered the area within yellow outline.

The moral to this story: Do not ignore severe thunderstorm warnings! Severe thunderstorms can and do produce tornadoes quickly. Plus, even without a tornado, a severe thunderstorm can do as much damage as a weak tornado.

P.S. Thanks to the Iowa Environmental Mesonet website for making it easy to research previous-day warnings, etc.