Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 2001

F0 tornado, Philo, Illinois, August 18, 2001

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Champaign County on August 18, 2001, touching down at 3:51 PM CDT and reaching 5 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mphthis tornado

    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 mph

    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.

The record

Rating
F0
Date
August 18, 2001
Touchdown
3:51 PM CDT (20:51 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
5 yards (5 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Champaign County
Touchdown point
39.930, -88.150
Lift-off point
39.930, -88.150
Record number
1107

What the Weather Service recorded

A brief touchdown was noted over an open field by an University of Illinois student and his wife. No damage was reported.

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

The warnings

35 minutes of warning. NWS ILX issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:16 UTC, 35 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
18:23 UTC19:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningILX
18:40 UTC19:30 UTCTornado WarningILX
19:22 UTC20:15 UTCTornado WarningILX
20:16 UTC21:15 UTCTornado WarningILX

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Moderate Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:04 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 air that afternoon

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.

Lincoln, IL (KILX), 12:00Z

8.9 hours before the tornado, 45 km from the path. August 18, 2001.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2001-08-18Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 192 joules per kilogram, CIN -146, lifted condensation level 1002 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2001-08-18The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 92 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 40 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
192 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-146 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1002 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
92 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
136 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
4.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lincoln, IL (KILX), 00:00Z

3.1 hours after it, 45 km from the path. August 19, 2001.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2001-08-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 118 joules per kilogram, CIN -21, lifted condensation level 1117 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2001-08-19The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -6 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 42 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
118 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-21 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1571 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1117 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-6 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
87 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.0
Supercell composite
-0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
6.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Champaign - Willard (CMI), 16 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
18:53 UTC8467190° 15 kt191009.1
19:53 UTC8164220° 11 kt161008.5VCTS
20:11 UTC66.260.8320° 15 kt251008.8TS
20:53 UTC6662 5 kt1009.5+TSRA BR
21:53 UTC6564230° 5 kt1008.5-TSRA BR
22:14 UTC66.264.4310° 5 kt1008.8

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2001 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of August 18, 2001

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 1812:36 PM CDTF0Mason, IL0.125
August 182:45 PM EDTF0Robeson, NC0.115$30,000
August 182:05 PM CDTF0DeWitt, IL0.3100
August 183:14 PM CDTF0Champaign, IL0.120
August 186:02 PM CDTF0Jefferson, IL0.130
August 188:23 PM CDTF0Trempealeau, WI0.230

What this means

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.

Sources

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