ANGOLA, IN (WTVB) – The National Weather Service (NWS) did not issue a formal tornado warning for Steuben County and Angola ahead of Thursday’s severe storm because the brief, radar-obscured rotation developed rapidly within a fast-moving squall line.
While the entire area was placed under a severe thunderstorm warning and a broader tornado watch, identifying embedded twisters in that specific atmospheric setup proved difficult.
Angola Mayor Dave Martin says he has reached out to congressman Marlin Stutzman to enquire as to why his city was not pre warned when the storm system had developed a history of producing tornados.
According to meteorologists Dustin Norman from the NWS Northern Indiana office, the system contained multiple localized bursts of rotation rather than a prolonged, distinctly visible supercell. As a result, the unpredicted EF-1 tornado developed near the LaGrange County line and tore a 15.5-mile path into western and northern Angola without triggering a cellular wireless emergency alert.
Despite the absence of a NWS alert, localized emergency procedures filled the gap to protect sleeping residents. Officials with the Steuben County Emergency Management Agency manually activated the area’s 32 outdoor emergency sirens after a trained weather spotter reported seeing a funnel cloud approaching Angola.
This localized action provided crucial advance notice before the storm ultimately downplayed structural targets, heavily damaging trees and snapping utility poles with estimated peak winds of 90 mph. It was the 22nd a final tornado to hit the Hoosier state that night, surpassing the entire number of twisters for an average year.
Comments