Rare Indiana January tornadoes

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - Just a few weeks into the new year, we've already had our first tornadoes of 2012 in Indiana.  In fact, three tornadoes touched down in southern Indiana on Tuesday, January 17.  This was the same day northeastern Indiana experienced rain and storms, then falling temperatures and snow showers.

While the tornadoes were relatively weak, they produced significant damage in some spots.  Check out the photos alongside this story to see a plane that had its nose gear damaged and a large storage shed with one of its walls completely blown away.

Looking at Indiana tornado data from the years 1980-2011, 7 other tornadoes have occurred in January over 3 separate years: 1 in 1996, 1 in 2001 and 5 an 2008.  All of these occurred in either central or southern Indiana, not here in northeast Indiana.