McCoy: 2nd tornado touched down here

Van Wert County EMA information

The National Weather Service Office in Northern Indiana has confirmed that a second tornado touched down in Van Wert County on April 19. A National Weather Service damage survey team, with the assistance of Van Wert County Emergency Management Director Rick McCoy, was able to pinpoint the location where an EF-0 tornado, with winds estimated at 80-85 mph, touched down. This was the second tornado to hit the county since Weather Service personnel confirmed an EF-1 tornado struck Monticello in the southeastern part of the county and then moved east into Allen County.

Local EMA Director Rick McCoy said the tornado touched down on Liberty Union Road, a half mile south of Lincoln Highway, at the George Adams residence. The home sustained heavy damage. The tornado continued northeast across an open field and lifted prior to reaching U.S. 224 at Lincoln Highway. The tornado then remained aloft behind the homes along Lincoln highway passing just to the south of the Van Wert Cinemas and dissipated just before getting to John Brown Road north of KAM Manufacturing. McCoy said there was debris dropped from the Adams residence all along a 2-mile path to near john Brown Road. Ironically, this was nearly the same path followed by the destructive 2002 Van Wert tornado that cut through the entire county.

The EMA Director reported that the National Weather Service had been warning the public earlier in the day on the 19th that severe weather and possible tornadoes were likely. They further advised that a strong cold front moving in from the west with an advancing warm front would be the focal point for the tornadoes to develop. McCoy stated that around 10 p.m., fog had begun to develop and the temperature began rising which indicated the warm front had entered Van Wert County and it was expected that as the Cold front hit prior to midnight, tornadoes might develop just south of the front. At approximately 11:30pm, storms began moving into Van Wert County and the National Weather Service issued a Severe Thunderstorm Warning at that time. After reviewing radar data, it was evident that the Liberty Union Road tornado occurred from an individual thunderstorm cell out ahead of the main line of storms and the Monticello Tornado occurred just ahead of the squall line which also produced the strong Celina Tornado at about that same time.

The National Weather Service has advised that the spring season will continue to remain quite active with storms and possible tornadoes. Because of the recent and ongoing La Niña weather pattern, which caused active winter storms is now dominating the spring months. McCoy continues to urge the public to watch the weather closely as severe storms may occur again this Tuesday into Wednesday with additional flooding rains likely. He also said that May could produce a number of severe storms.