Alert archive / Illinois / Tornado Warnings in 1994

Tornado Warning 3, NWS St. Louis, MO

April 15, 1994Monroe County, Illinois

NWS St. Louis, MO issued this tornado warning at Apr 15, 1994, 5:04 AM CDT for Monroe County, Illinois. It was in force for 41 min. 1 report came from inside the area while it was in force.

The area

The counties it named, with what was reported inside it.

The facts

Issued: Apr 15, 1994, 5:04 AM CDT (10:04 UTC)
Expired: Apr 15, 1994, 5:45 AM CDT
In force: 41 min
Issued by: NWS St. Louis, MO
Area: Whole counties

County Monroe County, IL

The radar

The St Louis radar (KLSX), 64 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 10:05 UTC, the scan nearest the moment this went out.

Open the radar archive at this moment

The archived warnings, watches and discussions in force at that minute are drawn over the scan, this one among them.

What was reported inside it

Time	Report	Where	Remark
Apr 15, 5:15 AM CDT	Tornado F0	Waterloo To 1 Ne Wate, IL	A small tornado touched down in the northwest corner of Waterloo damaging a four-story brick grain elevator. Damage was generally confined to the building's roof (along the eastern side). As the tornado moved east-northeast through a residential area, damage

NCEI Storm Data entries that began inside the alert's area while it was in force. Before 2003 the local storm report archive is thin, so this is the record of what happened rather than what was phoned in. Storm Data before 1996 records only tornadoes, thunderstorm wind and hail.

The nearest sounding before it

Paducah/Barkley, KY (KPAH), launched 00:00Z, 10.1 hours before the alert went out and 187 km from the middle of its area. This is the routine balloon launch nearest before it, the air the forecaster had in hand, not a measurement taken for the alert.

Skew-T log-p

Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.

Hodograph

The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km.

Mixed-layer CAPE: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: No buoyant parcel
Mixed-layer LCL: 2422 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 46 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 115 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.

000 
TTAA00 KSTL 151006
TORSTL
ILC133-151045-
 
BULLETIN - EBS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ST LOUIS MO
504 AM CDT FRI APR 15 1994
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN ST LOUIS HAS ISSUED A
TORNADO WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL  545 AM CDT
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION...
 
IN SOUTHWEST ILLINOIS
 
   ...MONROE COUNTY
 
AT 500 AM...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR CONTINUES TO SHOW A
POSSIBLE TORNADIC THUNDERSTORM ACROSS NORTHERN JEFFERSON COUNTY...ABOUT
20 MILES SOUTHWEST OF ST LOUIS CITY. THIS STORM WAS MOVING EAST AT 35 TO
40 MILES AN HOUR AND WILL PUSH INTO MONROE COUNTY ILLINOIS BY 530 AM.
THE COMMUNITIES OF MERRIMAC...COLUMBIA AND FOUNTAIN ARE IN THE PATH OF
THIS STORM.
 
THIS IS A DANGEROUS STORM SITUATION.  ACT QUICKLY.  IF YOU ARE
IN THE PATH OF THIS TORNADO MOVE TO A SHELTER BELOW GROUND IF
AVAILABLE.  OTHERWISE...GO TO A SMALL INTERIOR ROOM ON THE LOWEST
FLOOR POSSIBLE.  AVOID WINDOWS.  ABANDON CARS AND MOBILE HOMES
FOR A REINFORCED BUILDING OR GET INTO A DITCH OR CULVERT.
 
SHEA/MORSE/RP

The office that day

Everything else NWS St. Louis, MO issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Apr 15, 5:15 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	LSX	Saint Clair	45 min
Apr 15, 5:26 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LSX	Bond, Madison	44 min
Apr 15, 5:37 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	LSX	Randolph	53 min
Apr 15, 5:49 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	LSX	Washington	41 min
Apr 15, 5:53 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LSX	Clinton	52 min
Apr 15, 5:53 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LSX	Perry	52 min
Apr 15, 6:15 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LSX	Effingham, Fayette	45 min
Apr 15, 6:15 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LSX	Marion	45 min
Apr 15, 6:31 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LSX	Jefferson	44 min

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in Illinois, 1994 Every tornado warning in 1994 Tornadoes in 1994

Sources

The product and its follow-ups from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center text; verification from NCEI's Storm Data; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.