Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 2006

F0 tornado, Lincoln, Illinois, April 30, 2006

This F0 tornado ran 0.7 miles across Logan County on April 30, 2006, touching down at 4:15 PM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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 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.

The record

Rating
F0
Date
April 30, 2006
Touchdown
4:15 PM CDT (21:15 UTC)
Path length
0.7 miles (1.1 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Logan County
Touchdown point
40.120, -89.330
Lift-off point
40.130, -89.320
Record number
449

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado briefly touched down. No damage was reported.

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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 16:52 UTC and running to 00:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
16:52 UTC00:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchILX
20:22 UTC21:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningILX
20:39 UTC21:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningILX
20:56 UTC01:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningILX

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:11 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

9.3 hours before the tornado, 62 km from the path. April 30, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2006-04-30Temperature 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 -74944, lifted condensation level 625 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 2006-04-30The 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 76 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 38 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
-74944 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
625 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
76 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
53 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

Lincoln, IL (KILX), 00:00Z

2.7 hours after it, 62 km from the path. May 1, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2006-05-01Temperature 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 -91027, lifted condensation level 977 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 00:00Z on 2006-05-01The 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 132 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 26 knots.193958Sfc1 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
-91027 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
977 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
132 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
144 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Lincoln (AAA), 4 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
19:24 UTC60.857.2140° 14 kt191009.5VCTS
19:44 UTC62.657.2130° 13 kt171009.1
20:03 UTC62.659140° 15 kt201009.1VCTS
20:23 UTC64.460.8130° 15 kt221008.8VCTS
20:43 UTC62.659130° 14 kt241008.8VCTS
21:03 UTC60.859150° 21 kt261009.1+TSRA
21:24 UTC5957.2130° 8 kt171010.5+TSRA
21:43 UTC57.253.6190° 9 kt211010.5TSRA
22:06 UTC57.253.6110° 4 kt1009.8-TSRA
22:23 UTC57.253.6130° 5 kt1009.8
22:43 UTC57.253.6170° 12 kt211011.2VCTS
23:03 UTC55.453.6140° 15 kt201011.2

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

The radar

The Lincoln radar (KILX), 3 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:14 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.

What was reported nearby

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

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
18:55 UTCFLOOD2 W ChestnutLogan, ILREPORT OF SALT CREEK FLOWING OVER 2000TH AVE 2 MILES WEST OF CHESTNUT
20:25 UTCHAIL 0.88MiddletownLogan, ILNICKEL SIZED HAIL COVERING THE GROUND IN MIDDLETOWN IL. REPORT FROM SPOTTER VIA LOGAN COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGER.
20:39 UTCHAIL 0.752 E ChathamSangamon, IL
20:44 UTCHAIL 0.75New HollandLogan, ILPENNY SIZED HAIL COVERING THE GROUND IN NEW HOLLAND
21:12 UTCHAIL 0.752 N HartsburgLogan, ILPENNY SIZED HAIL BETWEEN HARTSBURG AND EMDEN
21:14 UTCHAIL 0.88Mason CityMason, ILMOTHBALL TO NICKEL SIZED HAIL IN MASON CITY...REPORT FROM MASON CITY COOP.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2006 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 30, 2006

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 3010:39 AM CDTF0Mississippi, MO0.250
April 306:58 PM CDTF0New Madrid, MO0.250

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.