Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 2009

EF0 tornado, Clayton to Timewell, Illinois, June 2, 2009

From Clayton to Timewell, this EF0 tornado ran 3.0 miles across Brown and Adams counties on June 2, 2009, touching down at 4:25 PM 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 2, 2009
Touchdown
4:25 PM CDT (21:25 UTC)
Lifted
4:28 PM CDT (21:28 UTC)
On the ground
3 minutes
Path length
3.0 miles (4.9 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Counties
Brown and Adams counties
Touchdown point
39.990, -90.950
Lift-off point
39.988, -90.893
Record number
0906021525-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A cold front moved through the region triggering numerous showers and thunderstorms. Some of the storms produced severe weather including large hail and damaging winds.

A tornado touched down about 2.5 miles south southeast of Clayton and travelled to the east. It only caused damage to trees and tree limbs in the area before crossing into Brown county.

The tornado crossed the Adams/Brown county line about 2.5 miles southwest of Mound Station and continued to travel to the east. Near the intersection of County roads 1000N and 100E some metal roofing was blown off of a barn, a 3 to 4 foot diameter tree was snapped off near the base, as well as other tree damage. The tornado soon lifted and dissipated.

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

The warnings

11 minutes of warning. NWS LSX issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:14 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:45 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 17:27 UTC and running to 01:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
17:27 UTC01:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchLSX
20:14 UTC21:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLSX
20:58 UTC21:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLSX
21:14 UTC21:45 UTCTornado WarningLSX
22:26 UTC00:26 UTCFlood AdvisoryLSX

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 20:03 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

9.4 hours before the tornado, 185 km from the path. June 2, 2009.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Davenport, at 12:00Z on 2009-06-02Temperature 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 -79996, lifted condensation level 545 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 2009-06-02The 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 175 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 35 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-79996 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
545 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
175 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
172 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Davenport, (KDVN), 00:00Z

2.6 hours after it, 185 km from the path. June 3, 2009.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Davenport, at 00:00Z on 2009-06-03Temperature 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 -72813, lifted condensation level 1680 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 00:00Z on 2009-06-03The 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 -5 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 34 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-72813 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1680 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-5 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
21 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Lincoln radar (KILX), 136 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:26 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
20:22 UTCHAIL 0.252 N QuincyAdams, IL
20:47 UTCHAIL 0.75Camp PointAdams, IL
21:00 UTCHAIL 0.75Camp PointAdams, IL
21:25 UTCTORNADOClaytonAdams, ILBRIEF TORNADO REPORTED WITH MINOR TREE DAMAGE
21:26 UTCWALL CLOUDKellervilleAdams, ILSPOTTER REPORTS WALL CLOUD TO NORTHWEST WITH ROTATION.
21:28 UTCHAIL 0.251 Sw ClaytonAdams, IL
21:30 UTCWALL CLOUD3 Sw BuckhornBrown, ILROTATING WALL CLOUD.
21:35 UTCTORNADO1 Sw Mound StationBrown, ILTIN RIPPED OFF A BARN...3 TO 4 FT DIAMETER TREE SNAPPED...HAIL DAMAGE TO SIDE OF HOUSE
21:35 UTCTORNADOMound StationBrown, ILRELAYED THROUGH ILLINOIS STATE POLICE FROM BROWN COUNTY. TORNADO NEAR MOUND STATION (TIMEWELL). NO REPORT OF DAMAGE.
21:40 UTCHAIL 0.251 Sw Camp PointAdams, ILSPOTTER REPORTS PEA SIZE HAIL AND 0.80 INCHES OF RAINFALL IN LESS THAN AN HOUR.
21:43 UTCWALL CLOUDMount SterlingBrown, ILSPOTTER REPORTED SEEING STRONG ROTATION
21:58 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD2 Nnw VersaillesBrown, ILSPOTTER REPORTED A WELL DEFINED FUNNEL CLOUD
22:04 UTCHAIL 0.7Mount SterlingBrown, IL
22:25 UTCTORNADO3 Se GriggsvillePike, ILDEPUTY REPORTED BRIEF TOUCHDOWN JUST SOUTHEAST OF INTERSTATE 72 AND COUNTY ROAD 14

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2009 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 2, 2009

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 22:15 PM CDTEF0Vermilion Parish, LA0.125
June 22:39 PM CDTEF0Ford, KS0.350
June 23:45 PM CDTEF0Ford, KS0.675
June 25:36 PM EDTEF0Fairfield, OH0.010
June 24:40 PM CDTEF0Terry, TX0.025
June 24:43 PM CDTEF0Fisher, TX0.1250

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.