F2 tornado, Walnut Hill to Iuka, Illinois, April 15, 1998

1. F040 to 72 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. F173 to 112 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

   Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

4. F3158 to 206 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. F4207 to 260 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. F5261 to 318 mph

   Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

7. Unrated

   The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

Rating

F2

Date

April 15, 1998

Touchdown

7:52 PM CDT (00:52 UTC)

Path length

4.0 miles (6.4 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Marion County

Touchdown point

38.500, -89.030

Lift-off point

38.530, -88.970

Record number

112

A tornado which formed in Jefferson County near Cravat moved northeast into Marion County at Walnut Hill. Witnesses who saw the tornado noted a twin structure; two vortices very close to one another. Three homes suffered exterior wall or roof damage while five barns/farm implement buildings were destroyed. Trees were also uprooted.

The thunderstorm which spawned the tornado from Cravat to Walnut Hill produced another twin/multiple vortex tornado from just northeast of Walnut Hill to the intersection of Interstate 57 and Illinois Route 161. The tornado moved through a heavily wooded area and destroyed several barns/farm implement buildings, one mobile home, and damaged several homes. The tornado narrowed in width, losing its twin characteristics as it approached the intersection of Interstate 57 and State Route 161. Six homes were damaged, one mobile home destroyed, and eleven barn/farm implement buildings were either damaged or completely destroyed. Two tractor trailers were overturned by the tornado near the intersection of I-57/161.

The Cravat/Walnut Hill supercell thunderstorm produced a third tornado, this one starting southwest of Cartter near the intersection of Highways 37 and 161. One mobile home was destroyed, 18 barns/farm implement buildings were damaged or destroyed, and 8 homes suffered varying degrees of damage. Acres of trees were also uprooted/damaged along the path.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

1 minute of warning. NWS LSX issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:51 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:40 UTC.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a High Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 10:56 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

The live radar over the trackEvery 1998 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

18 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.