Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 2008

EF0 tornado, Kinmundy, Illinois, June 3, 2008

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Marion County on June 3, 2008, touching down at 7:54 AM CDT and reaching 50 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
June 3, 2008
Touchdown
7:54 AM CDT (12:54 UTC)
Lifted
7:55 AM CDT (12:55 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.1 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Marion County
Touchdown point
38.793, -88.910
Lift-off point
38.793, -88.909
Record number
0806030654-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A warm front lifted northward across the forecast area...triggering several rounds of thunderstorms during the evening hours of June 2nd into the morning hours of June 3rd.

A tornado briefly touched down in a farm destroying a machine shed and flipped over an unoccupied and unanchored mobile home. Also, the farm house sustained minor roof damage and several trees were blown over.

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

The warnings

0 minutes of warning. NWS LSX issued a tornado warning for this county at 12:54 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 13:23 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 08:39 UTC and running to 17:06 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
02:18 UTC08:39 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchLSX
08:39 UTC17:06 UTCTornado WatchLSX
12:39 UTC13:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLSX
12:54 UTC13:23 UTCTornado WarningLSX
21:00 UTC11:01 UTCFlash Flood WatchLSX

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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 06:36 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

0.9 hours before the tornado, 153 km from the path. June 3, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2008-06-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 7 joules per kilogram, CIN -233, lifted condensation level 1611 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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 2008-06-03The 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 79 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 44 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
7 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-233 J/kg
Surface CAPE
36 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1611 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
44 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
79 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
471 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lincoln, IL (KILX), 00:00Z

11.1 hours after it, 153 km from the path. June 4, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2008-06-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2538 joules per kilogram, CIN -28, lifted condensation level 775 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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 2008-06-04The 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 207 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 58 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
2538 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-28 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2314 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
775 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
58 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
36 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
207 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
240 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
3.9
Supercell composite
14.4
0-3 km lapse rate
5.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Salem/Leckrone (SLO), 17 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
11:10 UTC73.459170° 8 kt1007.1
11:30 UTC73.460.8180° 10 kt1007.5
11:50 UTC73.460.8180° 5 kt1007.5
12:10 UTC73.460.8170° 5 kt1007.1
12:30 UTC73.460.8190° 7 kt1007.5
12:50 UTC73.460.8160° 8 kt1006.8
13:10 UTC73.460.8190° 17 kt211006.1
13:30 UTC73.460.830° 8 kt1008.1
13:50 UTC71.660.8110° 3 kt1007.8
14:05 UTC71.659160° 5 kt1007.1
14:10 UTC73.460.8180° 7 kt1006.8
14:27 UTC73.460.8200° 11 kt1006.8
14:45 UTC75.262.6200° 13 kt1006.8

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

The radar

The Evansville,IN radar (KVWX), 119 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 12:53 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
13:05 UTCTORNADO2 E VernonMarion, ILPUBLIC REPORTED SEEING TORNADO THAT TOOK ROOF OFF BARN AND SHINGLES OFF HOUSE
13:07 UTCHAIL 12 E FarinaMarion, IL
13:30 UTCTSTM WND DMG4 Nw FloraClay, ILAPPROXIMATELY 4.5 NORTHWEST OF FLORA NORTH OF OAKMOUND LANE ON BUTTONWOOD ROAD A BIG BARN DOOR WAS BLOWN IN WITH TREE LIMBS DOWN RANGING FROM 3 INCHES TO 10 INCHES IN DIAMETER.
13:40 UTCFUNNEL CLOUDW XeniaClay, ILTRAINED SPOTTER REPORTED 2 FUNNEL CLOUDS ABOUT 1/4 MI WEST OF XENIA.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2008 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 3, 2008

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 311:10 AM EDTEF1Greene, IN27.11001$170,000
June 32:30 PM EDTEF0Morgan, IN0.450$20,000
June 37:27 PM EDTEF0City of Roanoke, VA1.660$350,000
June 38:40 PM EDTEF0Chesterfield, VA0.320$3,000
June 39:04 PM EDTEF3Shelby, IN9.715018$1.2 million
June 39:05 PM EDTEF0Butler, OH0.325$30,000
June 39:24 PM EDTEF2Brown, IN10.61504$23 million
June 38:32 PM CDTEF0Scott, IL6.775
June 39:50 PM EDTEF1Decatur, IN4.175$70,000
June 312:25 AM EDTEF0Clinton, OH0.225$15,000
June 312:25 AM CDTEF1Camden, MO6.0100$10,000

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.