Tornado developed out of a non-supercell thunderstorm or heavy rain shower and touched down on the south side of Fulton, Illinois, south-southeast of the intersection of 24th Avenue and 4th Street. The tornado moved Northeast through the Sikkema Trailer Park and crossed 5th and 6th streets before dissipating in a corn field.
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Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS DVN wrote it up.
Tornado developed out of a non-supercell thunderstorm or heavy rain shower and touched down on the south side of Fulton, Illinois, south-southeast of the intersection of 24th Avenue and 4th Street. The tornado moved Northeast through the Sikkema Trailer Park and crossed 5th and 6th streets before dissipating in a corn field. Widespread tree limb damage was noted during the survey with corn stalks tossed into power lines. Adjacent corn field was heavily damaged. Numerous public reports of a funnel were received by the Whiteside County Sheriff Office with no lightning observed. Path length 0.2 miles and was rated high F0.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Quad Cities, IA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Sep 12, 2:37 PM CST, 3 hours 1 minute earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE QUAD CITIES IA IL 337 PM CDT FRI SEP 12 2003 DISSIPATING COLD FRONT EXTENDS FROM WESTERN WI SOUTH THROUGH ERN IA INTO SW MO AT 18Z. SCATTERES SHRA AND A FEW TSRA OCCURRING ALONG AND EAST FO THE FRONT WITH MOST OF THE PCPN OVER IL. ANOTHER ...STRONGER...FRONT WAS MOVING THORUGH THE NORTHERN PLAINS. THIS MORNINGS UA ANALYSIS SHOWED A POTENT SYSTEM OVER THE NW U.S. WITH 150KT H250 JET STILL UPSTREAM OF THE TROF AXIS. WEAK H5 LOW AT THE BASE OF THE MIDWEST TROF HAS SETTLED IN OVER NRN TX. GOOD MOISTURE FEED EXISTS AHEAD OF THE TROF WITH NARROW RIBBON OF 11C TO 13C H8 DEWPOINTS FROM CENTRAL MO INTO ERN IA AND NW IL. MODELS INITIALIZED A LITTLE BETTER THIS MORNING...BUT WERE STILL TO HIGH ON THE H5 HEIGHTS EAST OF THE NRN TX LOW. MODEL SOLUTIONS ARE NOW AGREEING ON NRN TX H5 LOW LIFTING OUT ON A MORE NORTHERLY TRAJECTORY SATURDAY...AS STRONG NW U.S. S/W DIGS INTO THE CENTRAL PLAINS. AT THIS TIME IT LOOKS LIKE THE TWO SYSTEM WILL PHASE OVER THE MID MISSISSIPPI VALLEY...GENERATING A MUCH NEEDED WIDESPREAD RAINFALL EVENT. EXPECT SCATTERED SHRA TO CONTINUE ALONG AND E OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER THROUGH THE EVENING HOURS...BUT NOT AS MUCH COVERAGE AS THIS AFTERNOON. AFTER MIDNIGHT MAIN PRECIPATION EVENT SHOULD SET IN AHEAD OF DEVELOPING SURFACE LOW MOVING NORTHEAST THROUGH MO. HAVE TIMED THIS INTO SOUTHERN CWA DURING THE EARLY MORNING HOURS THEN OVER ALL BUT THE FAR NW COUNTIES DURING THE DAY SATURDAY AND TAPERING OFF DURING THE EVENING. NW CWA WILL SEE SOME PCPN DURING THE EVENT...BUT AMOUNTS WILL BE LIGHTER THAN THOSE EXPECTED ALONG AND EAST OF THE MS RIVER. MODEL QPFS VARY SATURDAY WITH THE ETA/GFS SUGGESTING RAINFALL AROUND 2 INCHES BETWEEN 12Z AND 00Z CENTERED ON THE MS RIVER. THE UKMET IS PRODUCTING JUST UNDER AN INCH. SINCE THERE IS ALREADY LOW LEVEL MOISTURE IN PLACE AND MODELS ARE AGREEING ON THE STRENGTH OF THE SYSTEM...ILL LEAN TOWARD THE HEAVIER AMOUNTS AND USE THE HEAVY RAIN AT TIMES WORDING FOR THE EASTERN HALF OF THE CWA. MOST OF THE RAIN SHOULD TAPER OFF SATURDAY NIGHT...BUT WILL LEAVE LOW CHANCE POPS IN EAST SUNDAY MORNING FOR CONTINUITY SAKE. HIGH MOVING TO OUR SOUTH MONDAY WILL BRING DRY WX BACK TO THE REGION. WILL BUMP UP TEMPS TONIGHT CENTRAL AND EAST. LOOKS LIKE COOLER AIR ASSOCIATED WITH FIRST FRONT IS ABOUT AS FAR EAST AS ITS GOING TO GET. SURFACE WINDS ARE ALREADY BACKING TO THE S OR SE OVER WRN THIRD OF IOWA IN RESPONSE TO PRESSURE FALLS AHEAD OF NRN PLAINS FRONT. ON THE OTHER HAND...CLOUDS AND WIDESPREAD PCPN SATURDAY SHOULD LIMIT DIURNAL VARIATIONS...AND HAVE TRIMMED BACK MAX SATURDAYS MAX TEMPS. SUNDAY...THE BIG QUESTION WILL BE THE EXTENT OF WRAP AROUND SC AND ITS IMPACT ON TEMPS. BASED ON H8 RH PROGS...LOOKS LIKE AT LEAST THE NRN HALF OF THE CWA SHOULD SEE CLOUDS DURING THE DAY...SO LEANED TOWARD THE COOLER MOS NUMBERS. EXTENDED... MODELS IN GENERAL AGREEMENT ON DEVELOPING ANOTHER TROF OVER THE WESTERN U.S. BY MID WEEK AND MOVING SURFACE FRONT INTO THE CENTRAL U.S. BY THE END OF THE WEEK. THERE ARE TIMING DIFFERENCES WITH THE EUROPEAN MODELS SUGGESTING A SLOWER EASTWARD PROGRESSION THAN THE GFS. AT THIS POINT ITS HARD TO ARGUE FOR ONE SOLUTION OR THE OTHER WITH THE POTENTIAL IMPACT OF ISABEL ON MOVEMENT OF UPSTREAM WX SYSTEMS. FOR NOW WILL INCLUDE LOW CHANCE POPS FOR THURSDAY/THURSDAY NIGHT SIMILAR TO THE GFS. .DVN... IA...NONE. IL...NONE. MO...NONE. DLF
IAZ040>042-051>054-063>068-076>078-087>089-098-099-ILZ001-002-007- 009-015>018-024>026-034-035-MOZ009-010-131100- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE QUAD CITIES IA IL 519 AM CDT FRI SEP 12 2003 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF EASTERN IOWA... NORTHWEST AND WEST CENTRAL ILLINOIS...AND NORTHEAST MISSOURI. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT SHOWERS WILL BE WIDESPREAD TODAY WITH A FEW THUNDERSTORMS POSSIBLE AS A SLOW MOVING COLD FRONT CROSSES THE AREA. THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE MOST LIKELY EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER IN THE AFTERNOON. ANY STORMS THAT DEVELOP ARE NOT EXPECTED TO BE SEVERE...BUT MAY PRODUCE BRIEF HEAVY DOWNPOURS. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SATURDAY THROUGH THURSDAY THUNDERSTORMS WILL AGAIN BE POSSIBLE SATURDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING AS A WAVE OF LOW PRESSURE APPROACHES THE AREA FROM THE SOUTHWEST. THE MAIN THREAT WILL BE FREQUENT LIGHTNING FROM THESE STORMS...AS CONDITIONS WILL NOT BE FAVORABLE FOR STORMS TO REACH SEVERE LEVELS. AS THE LOW PASSES TO THE SOUTHEAST SATURDAY NIGHT AND EARLY SUNDAY...WIDESPREAD MODERATE RAIN IS EXPECTED WITH LOCALLY HEAVY RAINFALL POSSIBLE. RAINFALL TOTALS AS HIGH AS 2 TO 3 INCHES WILL BE POSSIBLE SOUTHEAST OF A LINE FROM FREEPORT ILLINOIS TO FAIRFIELD IOWA BEFORE THE RAIN ENDS SUNDAY MORNING. THESE AMOUNTS WOULD NOT LIKELY RESULT IN WIDESPREAD FLOODING...BUT MAY PRODUCE SIGNIFICANT RISES IN SMALL STREAMS. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT ANTICIPATED. MORE INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED AT THE FOLLOWING INTERNET WEB SITE: HTTP://WWW.CRH.NOAA.GOV/DVN (ALL LOWER CASE) SHEETS
The Quad Cities radar (KDVN), 45 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 23:38 UTC.
1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
Rated high end F0
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Illinois in 2003Every state in 2003This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Illinois, 2003Warnings in Illinois, September 2003
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5336797.