Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 2003

F1 tornado, Mattoon, Illinois, September 26, 2003

This F1 tornado ran 1.5 miles across Coles County on September 26, 2003, touching down at 6:50 PM CDT and reaching 250 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 1, and did $10 million of property damage.

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 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mphthis tornado

    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
F1
Date
September 26, 2003
Touchdown
6:50 PM CDT (23:50 UTC)
Path length
1.5 miles (2.4 km)
Path width
250 yards (229 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
1
Property damage
$10 million
County
Coles County
Touchdown point
39.530, -88.330
Lift-off point
39.520, -88.320
Record number
203

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado touched down 4 miles north northeast of Mattoon near a printing plant. It then traveled east damaging several buildings at the plant. Almost 500,000 square feet of the roof was damaged or destroyed. Contents in the buildings including electronic equipment and over 5 million pounds of paper were damaged. With over 400 employees in the plant at the time of the tornado, only one person suffered minor injuries but didn't need immediate medical attention. After hitting the plant, the tornado damaged some outbuildings at a nearby farm before lifting and dissipating. Damage to the plant was estimated around $10 million.

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.

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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:58 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

11.8 hours before the tornado, 73 km from the path. September 26, 2003.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2003-09-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -85665, lifted condensation level 2018 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 2003-09-26The 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 210 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 51 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-85665 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2018 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
51 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
210 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
246 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
2.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lincoln, IL (KILX), 00:00Z

0.2 hours after it, 73 km from the path. September 27, 2003.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2003-09-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -42, lifted condensation level 765 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 2003-09-27The 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 21 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 70 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-42 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
765 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
70 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
21 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
100 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Mattoon/Charlest (MTO), 7 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:53 UTC6763170° 13 kt1002
22:53 UTC6864180° 12 kt1001.7
23:44 UTC69.864.4170° 9 kt1001.4VCTS -RA
23:53 UTC6965190° 10 kt1001.7-TSRA
00:04 UTC64.462.6300° 23 kt371004.7+TSRA BR SQ
00:06 UTC62.660.8290° 17 kt371004.4+TSRA BR SQ
00:12 UTC62.660.8240° 6 kt1004.1+TSRA FG
00:18 UTC62.660.8240° 7 kt1004.4+TSRA BR
00:41 UTC62.660.8260° 8 kt1004.4+TSRA BR
00:53 UTC6361280° 8 kt1004.1+TSRA BR
01:03 UTC62.660.8300° 14 kt1004.4VCTS RA BR
01:16 UTC62.662.6290° 8 kt1004.1RA
01:25 UTC62.662.6280° 9 kt1004.1VCTS +RA BR
01:39 UTC62.660.8280° 16 kt221003.7VCTS +RA BR
01:41 UTC62.660.8280° 15 kt221003.7+RA BR

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

The radar

The Lincoln radar (KILX), 111 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:47 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 September 26, 2003

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 265:15 PM CDTF1Logan, IL0.850$10,000
September 267:15 PM CDTF0Franklin, MO0.250
September 268:27 PM ESTF1Hamilton, IN2.2100$300,000
September 2611:00 PM EDTF1Darke, OH0.850$100,000

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.