EF0 tornado, Prairie to Tilden, Illinois, June 4, 2008

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

June 4, 2008

Touchdown

3:30 AM CDT (08:30 UTC)

Lifted

3:31 AM CDT (08:31 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.6 miles (1.0 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Randolph County

Touchdown point

38.188, -89.943

Lift-off point

38.188, -89.932

Record number

0806040230-01

Several boundaries from previous activity remained over the region with very unstable conditions. This helped to trigger another round of severe thunderstorms and heavy rainfall.

A tornado touched down just south of Illinois Route 154 on South Prairie Road and travelled to the east. It blew down several trees along its path. When it reached Elm Shade Road, it caused minor damage to a couple of machine sheds and shifted a garage on its foundation before lifting and dissipating. Debris from the machine sheds was thrown approximately 300 to 400 yards to the east northeast into an open field.

A tornado initially touched down just southeast of the intersection of Illinois Routes 4 and 13. The tornado travelled to the east along and south of Route 13. One large tree on a farmstead was snapped near the base of the tree. The tornado moved into the west side of Tilden where several large tree limbs were blown down. A large tree limb crashed through the backside of a machine shed just east of Duck Lane. The tornado then tracked just to the north of Route 13 and damaged the roofs of three homes and one building. Also, two garages had large trees fall on them and a small shed was damaged. Debris from the building and shed were tossed approximately 50 to 100 yards to the east and northeast. Additional trees and tree limbs were blown down in this area. As it continued to the east, the tornado only caused minor damage til it reached the east side of town. Northwest of the intersection of Route 9 and Prest Road a small machine shed was destroyed. The tornado then lifted and dissipated.

Another tornado formed south of the Tilden tornado...south of Route 13 along Walnut Street. One large tree fell onto a garage causing major damage. A nearby home sustained minor roof damage. Several other trees were damaged along and east of Walnut Street in an open field. As it travelled to the east it damaged more trees in a cemetery just north of Route 13 before lifting and dissipating.

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

19 minutes of warning. NWS LSX issued a tornado warning for this county at 08:11 UTC, 19 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 08:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 07:06 UTC and running to 09:50 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 06:02 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 St Louis radar (KLSX), 86 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 08:28 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 2008 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

45 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.