A destructive outbreak of nine tornadoes struck the Mississippi Valley and the Midwest during the overnight hours of November 5–6, 2005. The worst event was an F3 tornado that formed early in the morning of November 6, 2005, outside of Evansville, Indiana, United States. It was the first of several tornado events that November. The tornado resulted in 24 confirmed fatalities across the region, making it the deadliest and most destructive November tornado in Indiana's history.

The system formed on a warm front that tracked across the Midwest and stretched from the northern Great Lakes to Tennessee. The front was enhanced by a strong jet stream and warm, humid air ahead of it, allowing thunderstorms to develop. A severe thunderstorm watch was issued for the region just west of Evansville as the main threat appeared to be straight-line winds.^[2] The system had formed into a squall line but at about 1:30 am CST (0730 UTC), the squall line broke up in the Ohio Valley area, as the low-level jet intensified, allowing embedded tornadoes to form rapidly out of newly formed supercells. They were fairly isolated (only nine were confirmed across the entire region over 24 hours) but three significant tornadoes formed from two simultaneous supercells in southern Indiana and western Kentucky — one of them was the deadly Evansville tornado.^[3]

The community's response to the tornado garnered national praise. Brad Gair, a coordinating officer for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) noted:

"I don't think I've ever seen a community of people come out so quickly to help each other. All communities come together after a disaster, but this one is exceptional... Just having a telethon that quickly was amazing," said Gair, "Then to raise that kind of money ... That's unusual."^[23]

On August 12, 2006, a granite monument memorial was built at Eastbrook Mobile Home Park, along with a new playground dedicated to the children lost in the tornado. It was part of a campaign launched by two parents that lost children in the tornado. In addition, Rep. Phil Hoy introduced a bill called "CJ's law" which mandates that manufacturers of mobile homes install an operating weather radio with a separate power outlet in order to alert residents. It was named after victim C.J. Martin, who was two years old.^[24] Vanderburgh County also passed legislation toughening safety standards for their 3,100 mobile homes, requiring them to be more securely anchored with additional straps and braces, to try to prevent another tornado disaster.^[25]

Ellis Park was rebuilt and reopened on June 1, 2006, for training. The first races at the rebuilt facility were held on July 19, 2006.^[26]

Local television station WEHT began a campaign after the tornado to provide weather radios to tornado victims for free, and to all for a discounted price.^[27] Even WEHT's competitors have now posted how to program a weather radio on their websites.^[28] This program has since spread to many different areas of the country.^[29]

"Habitat for Humanity" Evansville Chapter launched construction of "Operation Home Again," the New Haven Subdivision, which are new homes dedicated to the survivors of the tornado at Green River Road and Fickas Road. The subdivision has 55 homes and playground/park. There are four streets in the subdivision – Inspiration Street, Healing Street, Promise Street, and Belief Street.^[30]

• List of North American tornadoes and tornado outbreaks