F1 tornado, Matherville to North Henderson, Illinois, April 13, 2006

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

April 13, 2006

Touchdown

10:12 PM CDT (03:12 UTC)

Path length

0.8 miles (1.3 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$100,000

County

Mercer County

Touchdown point

41.050, -90.550

Lift-off point

41.070, -90.550

Record number

366

Tornado developed just east of 240th Street at 2107 CST and tracked generally east across the far northern part of Matherville and dissipated just west of U.S. 67 east of Matherville at 2111 CST.Two homes had roof damage done to them with the sheriff's office indicating one house was completely unroofed.

The location of this tornado is Alexis, Illinois which straddles the county line between Mercer and Warren Counties.Tornado began on the northwest side of Alexis at 2112 CST and moved east across the northern part of the village. It dissipated on the east side close to the abandoned railroad tracks at 2115 CST. The damage path is north of First Avenue. A parsonage on the west side of town had 75 percent of its roof torn off with the roof blown onto the house next door. Across the north side of town, several sheds were heavily damaged or destroyed with considerable tree damage. One house had its roof completely torn off with varying roof damage to numerous other houses. Several utility poles were snapped in half.

Rated low F2

Rated high F1

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

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 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 01:00 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.

Galesburg (GBG), 17 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Quad Cities radar (KDVN), 61 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:10 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.

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 2006 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

17 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.