SYRACUSE - This morning, the National Weather Service confirmed a tornado touched down in Nappanee Thursday night.
"There has been a tornado," said Michael Sabones, meteorologist-in-charge of the weather service's northern Indiana office in Syracuse.
Sabones said the damage observed in Nappanee was consistent with patterns seen in the wake of a tornado.
An NWS storm survey team completed a survey of southern Elkhart County and was investigating damage in northwestern Kosciusko County this morning.
According to the team's report, the data suggests damage consistent with a high-end EF3 tornado, with winds of 160 to 165 miles per hour. The team plans to extend the survey into eastern Marshall County.
"When it comes to the fact of was this a tornado or strong wind, we look at damage," Sabones said. "We look at the type of damage to structures, type of construction that went into structures and how they fared during the storm."
Tornados usually leave a pattern of damage converging inward, whereas damage from strong winds usually appears randomly diverging from the center of the storm's path.
Weather officials still were investigating the path of the tornado in the direction of Scott Township in northwest Kosciusko County this morning. Sabones said initial findings indicate the path stretches from southeast Marshall County, northwest to Kosciusko County.
According to NWS officials, more information is expected to be released later today online at weather.gov/iwx
