Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 2007

EF0 tornado, Schaumburg, Illinois, May 16, 2007

This EF0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Cook County on May 16, 2007, touching down at 5:52 PM CDT and reaching 15 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 of property damage.

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
May 16, 2007
Touchdown
5:52 PM CDT (22:52 UTC)
Lifted
5:53 PM CDT (22:53 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
15 yards (14 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000
County
Cook County
Touchdown point
42.030, -88.080
Lift-off point
42.030, -88.080
Record number
0705161652-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Strong thunderstorms formed over Streamwood and Hanover Park during the late afternoon hours of May 16th.

Based on eyewitness accounts, a condensation funnel may not have been visible, but damage to roofs of three buildings in an industrial park along Wise Road just west of Mitchell Boulevard show signs of uplift but minimal winds. Only a couple of tree limbs were knocked down in the area. An eyewitness observed roofing material and insulation lifted into the air and swirling rapidly. Witnesses also observed rotation in a low hanging cloud base.

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:31 UTC23:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLOT
22:50 UTC23:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLOT

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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:59 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.

Davenport, (KDVN), 12:00Z

10.9 hours before the tornado, 206 km from the path. May 16, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Davenport, at 12:00Z on 2007-05-16Temperature 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 -118077, lifted condensation level 1145 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, Davenport, at 12:00Z on 2007-05-16The 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 -63 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 28 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
-118077 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1145 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-63 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-47 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Davenport, (KDVN), 00:00Z

1.1 hours after it, 206 km from the path. May 17, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Davenport, at 00:00Z on 2007-05-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 47 joules per kilogram, CIN -3, lifted condensation level 2707 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 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, Davenport, at 00:00Z on 2007-05-17The 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 3 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 23 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
47 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-3 J/kg
Surface CAPE
94 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2707 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
3 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
47 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
9.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Chicago radar (KLOT), 47 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:52 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
22:28 UTCTSTM WND DMGHuntleyMchenry, ILPOWER LINES DOWN IN PARTS OF CITY.
22:50 UTCTSTM WND DMGSchaumburgCook, ILROOF BLOWN OFF BUILDING AT WYSE RD AND MITCHELL RD. SCHAUMBURG FIRE DEPT REPORT RELAYED BY HAM RADIO.
22:55 UTCTSTM WND DMGHanover ParkDupage, ILLARGE TREE LIMBS DOWN IN HANOVER PARK. REPORT RELAYED BY PUBLIC.
23:00 UTCHAIL 0.75PalatineCook, ILPENNY SIZE HAIL.

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 May 16, 2007

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 164:08 PM EDTEF1Western Connecticut Planning Region, CT4.5100

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.