F0 tornado, Paxton, Illinois, May 28, 2003

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.

Rating

F0

Date

May 28, 2003

Touchdown

5:49 PM CDT (22:49 UTC)

Path length

1.5 miles (2.4 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Ford County

Touchdown point

40.470, -88.130

Lift-off point

40.430, -88.150

Record number

977

Severe thundestorms developed during the afternoon hours of May 28th and quickly moved southeast across northern and eastern Illinois. Trees and power lines were reported down across many areas. Will county was one of the hardest hit areas. In Bolingbrook, 16 homes were damaged on Saffron and Sparrow streets and Timber Mill Court, by winds over 70 mph, flying debris and falling trees. In Plainfield in Will county, 60 feet of a 100 foot tall radio tower fell over and had to be replaced. Many trees were also blown down in the Plainfield area. In addition to the wind damage, hail was reported across many locations in Will county. In Dupage county, three foot diameter trees and several utility poles were blown down one mile east of the intersection of Route 38 and Route 59. A tractor trailer was blown over at Route 59 and Ferry road just west of Naperville in Dupage county. In Aurora in Kane county, large trees blocked South Lincoln Avenue near Spring Lake Cemetery. A large tree was also blown down at Park and Madison streets in Batavia in Kane county. Kankakee in Kankakee county also suffered wind damage. Numerous trees and power lines were blown down across the city. Severeal tractor trailers were blown over and a car was total by a fallen tree. In addition to the severe winds and hail, a few weak tornadoes were also reported. In Morris in Grundy county, winds damaged tree limbs and blew around corn stalks and other debris.

A weak tornado touched down 2 miles west of Paxton near Interstate 57 in southern Ford county. Utility poles were blown down west of Paxton.

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

10 minutes of warning. NWS LOT issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:39 UTC, 10 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:00 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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:12 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 Lincoln radar (KILX), 107 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:50 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.

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

9 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.