Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 2002
F1 tornado, Flora, Illinois, April 27, 2002
This F1 tornado ran 5.0 miles across Clay County on April 27, 2002, touching down at 12:05 AM CDT and reaching 200 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 5.
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.
F040 to 72 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- F1
- Date
- April 27, 2002
- Touchdown
- 12:05 AM CDT (05:05 UTC)
- Path length
- 5.0 miles (8.0 km)
- Path width
- 200 yards (183 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 5
- County
- Clay County
- Touchdown point
- 38.650, -88.520
- Lift-off point
- 38.630, -88.450
- Record number
- 36
What the Weather Service recorded
A tornado touched down 2 miles southwest of Flora near the intersection of county road 1000E and 200N. At this location, it turned an unattached garage on its foundation. As the tornado travelled east along 200N it destroyed a mobile home. The three occupants sustained minor injuries. Debris from the mobile home was blown up to a mile away. It damaged 3 additional homes and a mobile home. Also, numerous trees were blown down and a propane tank was thrown a quarter of a mile. At the intersection of 1100E and 200N, a car was rolled three times and thrown into a ditch. Two occupants in the car had minor injuries, but refused treatment. As it continued east, the tornado destroyed an outbuilding. The last evidence of damage due to the tornado was located on county road 1500E, just north of 200N. Several powerlines and trees were blown over causing minor damage to a house and car.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 04:52 UTC | 05:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ILX |
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, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 00:53 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), 00:00Z
5.1 hours before the tornado, 168 km from the path. April 28, 2002.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- 0 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 439 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 79 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 47 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 516 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 567 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 2.3 K/km
Lincoln, IL (KILX), 12:00Z
6.9 hours after it, 168 km from the path. April 28, 2002.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 2 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -2 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 8 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 721 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 52 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 35 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -10 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 120 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 3.5 K/km
The surface observations
Flora (FOA), 4 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 03:05 UTC | 64.4 | 62.6 | 160° 9 kt | 1005.1 | BR | |
| 03:25 UTC | 64.4 | 62.6 | 160° 8 kt | 1004.7 | BR | |
| 03:47 UTC | 64.4 | 62.6 | 170° 9 kt | 1004.4 | BR | |
| 04:05 UTC | 64.4 | 64.4 | 180° 11 kt | 1004.1 | BR | |
| 04:25 UTC | 66.2 | 64.4 | 180° 12 kt | 17 | 1003.4 | BR |
| 04:45 UTC | 66.2 | 64.4 | 190° 12 kt | 1003.4 | BR | |
| 05:09 UTC | 66.2 | 62.6 | 280° 18 kt | 1005.1 | ||
| 05:25 UTC | 64.4 | 60.8 | 220° 14 kt | 20 | 1003.7 | -VCTSRA |
| 05:45 UTC | 62.6 | 59 | 230° 7 kt | 1002.7 | -TSRA | |
| 06:05 UTC | 62.6 | 57.2 | 220° 8 kt | 14 | 1003.4 | VCTS |
| 06:25 UTC | 62.6 | 57.2 | 200° 9 kt | 1003 | ||
| 06:45 UTC | 62.6 | 59 | 180° 8 kt | 1003 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2002 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of April 27, 2002
9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 27 | 3:06 PM CDT | F1 | Saline, NE | 4.5 | 40 | |||
| April 27 | 3:25 PM CDT | F0 | Seward, NE | 0.1 | 20 | |||
| April 27 | 4:10 PM CDT | F0 | Atchison, KS | 0.5 | 25 | $30,000 | ||
| April 27 | 4:41 PM CDT | F0 | Fremont, IA | 0.0 | 20 | |||
| April 27 | 4:50 PM CDT | F0 | Fremont, IA | 0.0 | 20 | |||
| April 27 | 4:58 PM CDT | F0 | Mills, IA | 0.0 | 20 | |||
| April 27 | 10:35 PM CDT | F1 | Saint Clair, IL | 1.7 | 100 | |||
| April 27 | 10:40 PM CDT | F2 | Howell, MO | 1.5 | 100 | $1.5 million | ||
| April 27 | 12:40 AM CDT | F3 | Bollinger, MO | 4.0 | 200 | 1 | 16 | $4.0 million |
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.