F1 tornado, Bunker Hill to Wilsonville, Illinois, June 13, 2005

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.

Rating

F1

Date

June 13, 2005

Touchdown

6:10 PM CDT (23:10 UTC)

Path length

2.5 miles (4.0 km)

Path width

60 yards (55 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Macoupin County

Touchdown point

39.070, -89.850

Lift-off point

39.080, -89.820

Record number

142

The first in a series of weak tornadoes occurred around 6:00 pm over the far west sections of Bunker Hill. Several large trees were topped and some minor structural damage occurred to some buildings. A few vehicles were also damaged by fallen trees.

The second tornado occurred 2.5 miles north of Bunker Hill near Highway 159 . A large machine shed was damaged with debris tossed up to 300 yards northeast of Highway 159 over an open farm field.

The third tornado firmed approximately 2 miles northeast of Bunker Hill near Mansholt Road. One large machine shed was completely destroyed. The debris was tossed over 450 yards to the northeast. The tornado caused minor damage to several grain silos and a machine shed on a farm on South Dorchester Road. This tornado continued northeast across the northern part of Wilsonville and caused roof damage to a church as well as tree and power pole damage.

The fourth tornado that formed alone the leading edge of a bowing segment of a squall line formed near the south edge of Wilsonville and moved northeast crossing Willhoit Airport Road at approximately 6:10 pm. One machine shed was totally destroyed while a second adjacent machine shed sustained damage. Debris from both was tossed up to 300 yards to the northeast. Some of the debris was wrapped around tree trunks while other debris was mangled just above the trunks. A third machine shed just south of Highway 138 on Willhoit Airport Road was also damaged. Debris from this machine shed was tossed up to 400 yards to the northeast. The tornado also caused tree damage just east of Willhoit Airport Road.

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

58 minutes of warning. NWS LSX issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:12 UTC, 58 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:15 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:29 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 St Louis radar (KLSX), 84 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:12 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2005 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

16 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.