F2 tornado, Springfield to Riverton, Illinois, March 12, 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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

   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

F2

Date

March 12, 2006

Touchdown

8:24 PM CST (02:24 UTC)

Path length

4.0 miles (6.4 km)

Path width

400 yards (366 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Sangamon County

Touchdown point

39.800, -89.650

Lift-off point

39.800, -89.580

Record number

110

The tornado touched down about 1/4 mile north of the Bunn Park golf course, and tracked to the northeast. The strongest damage was bounded by 15th Street, Cornell Avenue, South Grand Avenue, and Pope Avenue. Several homes had roofs torn off, with extensive damage to power poles and lines, along with numerous downed trees. The tornado continued to track northeast across Old Rochester Road, Singer Avenue, and Cook Street from White City Blvd. to a block east of Dirksen Parkway. The tornado crossed I-55 at the Clear Lake Avenue interchange, and overturned a semi truck. This tornado dissipated near Old Route 36, about 3/4 mile southwest of the Village of Clear Lake.No injuries or fatalities were reported.

The tornado touched down 3.75 miles south of Riverton. It moved northeast, between Dawson and Buffalo (passing 1.5 miles west of Buffalo), and lifted just south of the Logan County line, 5 miles northeast of Buffalo.This tornado started at F0 strength, about 100 yards wide, and quickly strengthened to F2 intensity (120 mph) with a maximum width of 200 yards. It weakened to F1 intensity, and was about 100 yards wide when it ended. Total path was 12.5 miles in length. Damage from this storm consisted of damage to barn buildings and some significant house damage. Power poles were snapped, with major tree damage.4 injuries were reported, but there were no fatalities

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

41 minutes of warning. NWS ILX issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:43 UTC, 41 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:50 UTC and running to 03:54 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 High Risk, with a 0.30 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 01:01 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 Lincoln radar (KILX), 46 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:26 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

54 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.