EF0 tornado, Plainfield to Bolingbrook, Illinois, April 26, 2007

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

April 26, 2007

Touchdown

2:58 PM CDT (19:58 UTC)

Lifted

3:09 PM CDT (20:09 UTC)

On the ground

11 minutes

Path length

3.2 miles (5.1 km)

Path width

5 yards (5 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$100,000

County

Will County

Touchdown point

41.600, -88.200

Lift-off point

41.670, -88.130

Record number

0704261358-01

A tornado touched down in Plainfield and Bolingbrook.

A small tornado touched down at Route 126 and Eastern Avenue in Plainfield and continued for 3.2 miles to near Patrick Henry Parkway and Essington Road in Bolingbrook. The tornado path width was only about 5 yards wide. The tornado was rated EF0 with winds estimated at 65 to 80 mph.|The first damage was at a nursing home just northeast of downtown Plainfield. A minivan in the parking lot was flipped on its side and a couple other vehicles were jostled. There was roof damage to the nursing home where shingles and a couple small sections of roofing were torn off.|The funnel then passed over an older neighborhood with mature trees and ranch homes. There was no visible damage in this area. The large trees may have sheltered the neighborhood. The funnel then moved over an area of lakes with very few homes.|The next signs of damage were in a subdivision just southwest of the corner of Essington Road and 127th Street. This is a new subdivision with large two story homes and only small trees. These homes were more exposed. Here there was minor damage to several homes. Most of the damage was to shingles and playground equipment. The tornado continued into another subdivision north of 127th where trampolines and lawn furniture were blown around by the tornado. The flying debris damaged siding on a few homes. The tornado damage ended in a subdivision under construction on the east side of Essington Road where a construction trailer was damaged. The funnel dissipated over Bolingbrook golf club.

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:30 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.

Romeoville/Chi (LOT), 6 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Chicago radar (KLOT), 8 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:59 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 2007 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

10 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.