Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 2003

F0 tornado, Waterloo to Renault, Illinois, June 10, 2003

From Waterloo to Renault, this F0 tornado ran 3.0 miles across Monroe and Saint Clair counties on June 10, 2003, touching down at 6:10 PM CDT and reaching 50 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
June 10, 2003
Touchdown
6:10 PM CDT (23:10 UTC)
Path length
3.0 miles (4.8 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Counties
Monroe and Saint Clair counties
Touchdown point
38.370, -90.120
Lift-off point
38.370, -90.080
Record number
391

What the Weather Service recorded

An aerial survey conducted by members of the BAMEX (Bow Echo and Mesoscale Convective Vortex Experiment) revealed a small tornado track northeast of Waterloo. The damage occurred in a rural area and was limited to downed trees. The tornado crossed into St. Clair County west of Paderborn.

An aerial survey conducted by members of the BAMEX (Bow Echo and Convective Mesoscale Convective Vortex Experiment) project revealed a small tornado occurred in a rural area near Renault. Damage was limited to a path of downed trees.

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

The warnings

3 minutes of warning. NWS LSX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:07 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:52 UTC23:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLSX
23:07 UTC23:45 UTCTornado WarningLSX

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:46 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

11.2 hours before the tornado, 236 km from the path. June 10, 2003.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2003-06-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 77 joules per kilogram, CIN -103, lifted condensation level 1451 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 2003-06-10The 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 102 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 39 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
77 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-103 J/kg
Surface CAPE
140 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1451 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
39 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
102 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
63 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lincoln, IL (KILX), 00:00Z

0.8 hours after it, 236 km from the path. June 11, 2003.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2003-06-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1359 joules per kilogram, CIN -16, lifted condensation level 706 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 2003-06-11The 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 115 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 28 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
1359 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-16 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1896 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
706 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
115 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
122 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.5
Supercell composite
3.1
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Cahokia/St Louis (CPS), 23 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:18 UTC78.871.6160° 3 kt1007.8
21:53 UTC7973150° 5 kt1007.8
22:44 UTC78.873.4140° 4 kt1007.1
22:53 UTC7874140° 5 kt1006.1TS
23:01 UTC75.273.4270° 30 kt391010.8TSRA BR
23:07 UTC6868290° 22 kt391010.8+TSRA FG
23:10 UTC66.266.2290° 18 kt391010.5+TSRA FG
23:12 UTC66.266.2290° 14 kt341010.5+TSRA FG
23:16 UTC6868280° 10 kt241010.5+TSRA BR
23:28 UTC6868 3 kt1010.8+TSRA BR
23:32 UTC6868130° 5 kt1010.5TSRA BR
23:53 UTC6868140° 9 kt1009.5-RA
00:01 UTC69.868150° 8 kt1009.5VCTS -RA
00:08 UTC6866.2120° 6 kt1008.8VCTS -RA
00:12 UTC6866.2160° 5 kt1008.8-TSRA
00:53 UTC6966180° 6 kt1008.8-RA

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

The radar

The St Louis radar (KLSX), 63 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:10 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2003 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 10, 2003

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 105:55 PM CDTF0Saint Clair, IL3.575
June 106:05 PM CDTF2Saint Clair, IL3.51502
June 106:11 PM CDTF0Monroe, IL1.050
June 106:30 PM CDTF0Clinton, IL1.240
June 106:30 PM CDTF0DeKalb, IL0.550
June 106:35 PM CDTF1Washington, IL14.060

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.