EF1 tornado, Waverly to Lowder, Illinois, May 30, 2008

1. EF065 to 85 mph

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

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

   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

EF1

Date

May 30, 2008

Touchdown

7:17 PM CDT (00:17 UTC)

Lifted

7:25 PM CDT (00:25 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

4.8 miles (7.7 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$192,000

Counties

Morgan and Sangamon counties

Touchdown point

39.578, -90.001

Lift-off point

39.562, -89.899

Record number

0805301817-01

Severe thunderstorms developed ahead of a strong cold front during the afternoon hours of the 30th. These storms produced damaging wind gusts and large hail, as well as few tornadoes. The heavy rains produced by many of the storms produced flooding in some areas.

The tornado touched down in an open field 3 miles west-southwest of Waverly at 7:17 pm CDT. During the early part of the tornado track, the storm snapped trees along a 1.5 mile path, before producing minor damage to the roofs of a house and garage. The tornado then increased in width and intensity around 7:20 pm. It damaged two houses and a pole barn, and destroyed a garage, shed, pole barn, and two grain bins. The tornado crossed Illinois route 111 about a mile south of Waverly, and continued southeast across 1.5 miles of open farm land, before crossing into Sangamon County around 7:23 pm.

The tornado crossed into Sangamon County from Morgan County. The tornado damaged a pole barn, house and several trees, and destroyed a garage and another pole barn, and snapped several trees and power poles. The tornado traveled for another mile across open farmland before dissipating 8 miles west-southwest of Auburn around 7:25 pm.

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

19 minutes of warning. NWS ILX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:58 UTC, 19 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:59 UTC and running to 03:00 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:55 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.

Jacksonville (IJX), 34 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Lincoln radar (KILX), 83 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:17 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

18 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.