F0 tornado, Germantown Hills to Metamora, 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

2:58 PM CDT (19:58 UTC)

Path length

0.1 miles (0.2 km)

Path width

10 yards (9 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Woodford County

Touchdown point

40.750, -89.380

Lift-off point

40.750, -89.380

Record number

896

A tornado touched down on the southeast side of Germantown Hills (Woodford County), damaging a house. It pushed the front door open and blew the back wall of the house out about 15 inches. As it traveled to the southeast the tornado blew down numerous trees and power lines, before moving into Tazewell County. No injuries were reported.

A tornado briefly touched down in a field. No damage or injuries were reported.

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

17 minutes of warning. NWS ILX issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:41 UTC, 17 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:30 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 18:03 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.

NWS Lincoln, IL wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at May 28, 11:45 AM CDT, 3 hours 13 minutes earlier.

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LINCOLN IL
1145 AM CDT WED MAY 28 2003

UPDATED ZONES FOR STRONGER WINDS THIS AFTERNOON AND FOR WARMER HIGHS
IN THE UPPER 70S WEST OF I-57. OTHERWISE SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS
ARE STILL LIKELY...THOUGH MAINLY EARLY WEST OF I-57. EXPECT HIGHS
BETWEEN 75 AND 80 WITH WARMEST READINGS SE AND WESTERN CWA WHILE
WEST WINDS 15 TO 25 MPH BECOME NW AS A COLD FRONT MOVES SE ACROSS
CENTRAL IL THIS AFTERNOON.

COLD FRONT AT 16Z EXTENDED FROM SE WI SW ALONG THE IA/IL BORDER AND
INTO NW MO. CONVECTION AHEAD OF THE FRONT WAS EAST OF THE IL RIVER
WITH JUST A FEW EMBEDDED THUNDERSTORMS SO FAR THIS MORNING.
TEMPERATURES RANGED FROM THE LOWER 60S IN RAIN COOLED AREAS OF THE NW
CWA...TO THE MID TO UPPER 70S IN SUNNIER AREAS OF THE SE CWA.

SPC CONTINUED TO SHIFT SLIGHT RISK OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS FURTHER
SE AND NOW ALONG AND SE OF I-70 UNTIL SUNSET. LIMITING FACTOR FOR
SEVERE WEATHER IS DEEPER MOISTURE RETURN. SURFACE DEWPOINTS ARE IN
THE MID 50S EASTERN CWA WHILE LOWER 60S NW CWA. MOISTURE FAIRLY
SHALLOW AS 850 MB DEWPOINT OF 0C AT KILX AT 12Z WHILE POOL OF
DEWPOINTS OF 6 TO 8C ALONG COLD FRONT IN SE IA AND NW MO. SOME
INSTABILITY AROUND WITH CAPES BETWEEN 500 AND 1000 J/KG THIS
AFTERNOON WHILE LIFTED INDICES OF MINUS 2 TO 4C. FASTER ETA HAS BEEN
DOING BETTER WITH MOVEMENT OF COLD FRONT AND CONTINUED TO FOLLOW.
COLD FRONT TO MOVE SE TO I-55 BY 21Z AND TO THE IL/IN BORDER BY 00Z.
GRADIENT WEST WINDS OF 15 TO 25 MPH AND TURNING NW AFTER COLD
FRONTAL PASSAGE.

.ILX...NONE.

HUETTL

ILZ027>031-036>038-040>057-061>063-066>068-071>073-291100-

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LINCOLN IL
1100 AM CDT WED MAY 28 2003

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF CENTRAL AND
SOUTHEAST ILLINOIS.

.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT

THERE IS A SLIGHT RISK FOR SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS THIS AFTERNOON AND
EARLY THIS EVENING ACROSS EASTERN ILLINOIS...EAST OF I-55. A COLD
FRONT WILL MOVE EAST ACROSS CENTRAL ILLINOIS THIS AFTERNOON AND EXIT
SOUTHEAST ILLINOIS BY SUNSET. THIS FRONT WILL PRODUCE SCATTERED
THUNDERSTORMS OVER THE AREA THIS AFTERNOON. THE PRIMARY THREAT WITH
THESE STORMS WILL BE DAMAGING WINDS AND LARGE HAIL. THUNDERSTORMS
WILL SHIFT EAST OF ILLINOIS BY SUNSET.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...THURSDAY THROUGH TUESDAY

ANOTHER FAST MOVING COLD FRONT WILL SWEEP ACROSS THE MIDWEST ON FRIDAY
BRINGING A THREAT FOR MORE STRONG TO SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS TO PARTS OF
CENTRAL ILLINOIS. THE THREAT FOR THUNDERSTORMS WILL CONTINUE INTO
FRIDAY EVENING. CHANCES FOR THUNDERSTORMS WILL INCREASE ONCE AGAIN
OVER CENTRAL ILLINOIS ON TUESDAY.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

SPOTTER ACTIVATION MAY BE REQUIRED ACROSS EASTERN ILLINOIS THIS
AFTERNOON...ESPECIALLY ALONG AND EAST OF I-57. THE PRIMARY THREAT
FOR SEVERE WEATHER WILL OCCUR BETWEEN 1 AND 7 PM.

THIS PRODUCT...ALONG WITH OTHER WEATHER...HYDROLOGIC AND CLIMATE
INFORMATION...IS AVAILABLE ON THE WEB AT:

HTTP://WWW.CRH.NOAA.GOV/ILX. THIS ADDRESS IS ALL
IN LOWER CASE.

SMITH/HUETTL

In the hours before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LINCOLN, IL
255 PM CDT WED MAY 28 2003

TIME(CDT)  .....CITY LOCATION.....STATE   ...EVENT/REMARKS...
           ....COUNTY LOCATION....

0242 PM    1 N WASHINGTON            IL   TORNADO
05/28/03   TAZEWELL                       REPORTED BY SPOTTER

BAK

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.

Peoria (PIA), 27 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Lincoln radar (KILX), 67 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:56 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.