Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 2007

EF0 tornado, Assumption, Illinois, April 25, 2007

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Christian County on April 25, 2007, touching down at 2:40 PM CDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

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

  2. EF186 to 110 mph

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

  3. EF2111 to 135 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. EF3136 to 165 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. EF4166 to 200 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. EF5over 200 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
EF0
Date
April 25, 2007
Touchdown
2:40 PM CDT (19:40 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Christian County
Touchdown point
39.520, -89.050
Lift-off point
39.520, -89.050
Record number
0704251340-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Scattered thunderstorms developed along a nearly stationary boundary across central Illinois. Numerous funnel clouds were reported as the storms developed along the boundary and one landspout tornado touched down.

The tornado briefly touched down in a field. No damage or injuries were 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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:57 UTC20:45 UTCTornado WarningILX
21:24 UTC22:00 UTCTornado WarningILX
21:56 UTC22:30 UTCTornado WarningILX
22:30 UTC23:00 UTCTornado 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 17:50 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

7.7 hours before the tornado, 80 km from the path. April 25, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2007-04-25Temperature 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 -91980, lifted condensation level 490 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 2007-04-25The 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 32 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 56 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
-91980 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
490 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
56 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
32 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
86 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lincoln, IL (KILX), 00:00Z

4.3 hours after it, 80 km from the path. April 26, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2007-04-26Temperature 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 -68225, lifted condensation level 516 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 2007-04-26The 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 100 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 58 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
-68225 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
516 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
58 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
100 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
155 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Taylorville (TAZ), 24 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
17:45 UTC64.460.8360° 7 kt1008.8BR
18:05 UTC64.462.640° 9 kt1008.5BR
18:25 UTC64.462.620° 11 kt1008.5BR
18:45 UTC64.460.830° 10 kt1008.5BR
19:05 UTC64.460.830° 9 kt1008.5BR
19:25 UTC62.660.820° 7 kt1008.5BR
19:45 UTC62.660.830° 7 kt1008.8BR
20:05 UTC64.462.650° 7 kt1008.5-RA
20:25 UTC64.462.650° 8 kt1008.1BR
20:45 UTC64.462.650° 9 kt1007.8BR
21:05 UTC66.262.640° 11 kt1007.5HZ
21:25 UTC64.462.640° 12 kt1007.5BR

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

The radar

The Lincoln radar (KILX), 74 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:40 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
19:40 UTCTORNADOAssumptionChristian, ILTRAINED SPOTTER REPORTED BRIEF TORNADO TOUCHDOWN.
20:19 UTCTORNADO3 S MaconMacon, ILBRIEF TORNADO TOUCHDOWN...NO DAMAGE. FROM TRAINED SPOTTER.
20:27 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD2 Se SullivanMoultrie, ILFUNNEL CLOUD REPORTED BY ILLINOIS STATE POLICE DISTRICT 10. THE FUNNEL CLOUD WAS MOVING SLOWLY NNE.
20:27 UTCTORNADO1 Sw SullivanMoultrie, ILTORNADO TOWNDOWN AND AN ADDITIONAL FUNNEL CLOUD FROM PUBLIC.
20:27 UTCTORNADO3 S MaconMacon, ILCORRECTED TIME. BRIEF TORNADO TOUCHDOWN...NO DAMAGE. FROM TRAINED SPOTTER.
20:44 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD1 Sw BethanyMoultrie, ILSEVERAL FUNNEL CLOUDS DEVELOPING.
20:45 UTCTORNADOColesColes, ILTORNADO ON THE GROUND...NO DAMAGE...FROM TRAINED SPOTTER.
21:28 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD1 Ne MattoonColes, IL
21:44 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD1 Nw MorrisonvilleChristian, IL
21:51 UTCHAIL 0.882 Nw PalmerChristian, IL
21:51 UTCTORNADO2 Nw PalmerChristian, IL
21:57 UTCTORNADO3 Nnw PalmerChristian, ILTREES DAMAGED
22:08 UTCHAIL 12 S KincaidChristian, IL
22:08 UTCTORNADO2 S KincaidChristian, IL

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2007 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 25, 2007

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 252:15 AM CDTEF0Burleson, TX3.050$75,000
April 2512:05 PM CDTEF0Brazoria, TX0.320
April 258:20 PM CDTEF0Polk, TX0.330

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.