June 2-3 1990 TORNADO OUTBREAK

Let me begin this discussion as by saying, at one point, this was the biggest Tornado Outbreak to occur since the 1974 Super Outbreak.

Now let’s dive into the meat & potatoes. A HIGH RISK by the SPC was placed over the Rust Belt and Great Lakes on that Saturday Afternoon. At that time, the SPC only issued either a Slight or High Risks.

It was a classic MidWestern setup as a DryLine like boundary was draped over IL & MO in the afternoon. Strong EML was surging out of the SW so that enabled lot of dry air at Mid Level to erode any High Precip supercells with these storms. Storms began to pop late Afternoon in IL and chugged East toward IN by evening. High LCL’s and Helicity that day created many Hortizontal Vorticies with these Tornadoes; the 4/27/11 Outbreak in Alabama can remind you of that with the Tuscaloosa and Cullman Storm.

Saturday Morning June 2nd 1990 Surface Map

Saturday Evening Satellite Map

Everything was coming together with the Thermodynamics and especially the Kinematics. The “mixing” aspect of the moisture and wind with a Negative tilted Trof bullseyed many North of the Ohio River. Tornadoes were very strong and intense as many were F3/F4 strength. Closer to KY was an F4 that impacted Bedford, IN where a few fatalities occurred. After Midnight, storms grew more into Louisville area where. supercell produced F3 strength over Floyd’s Knobs. Another F3 shown on map occurred into Oldham Co near LaGrange.

Tornado Track Map

Another Track Map for KY

Doppler Radar out of Cincinnati

Here was a Radar grab from NWS WILMINGTON where line of cells pushed through Northern KY and into Cincy area; F4 occurred through the Metro area that night.

Leveled Homes in Bedford, IN

To this day, this is still the LARGEST TORNADO OUTBREAK in Indiana History, where 39 Tornadoes were reported. The 90s saw some big Outbreaks, including this one.

Thanks to NWS Indianapolis, NWS Louisville for these images. You can find them all on their website.

-Mike