EF1 tornado, Athensville, Illinois, March 8, 2009

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

March 8, 2009

Touchdown

11:10 AM CDT (16:10 UTC)

Lifted

11:17 AM CDT (16:17 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

4.8 miles (7.7 km)

Path width

352 yards (322 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Greene County

Touchdown point

39.480, -90.263

Lift-off point

39.510, -90.182

Record number

0903081010-01

A strong cold front moved through the region triggering showers and thunderstorms. Damaging winds, large hail and tornadoes were reported with the storms.

The tornado touched down on County Road 51, about three quarters of a mile west southwest of the intersection of Roodhouse Road and 2000E. A large machine shed was totally destroyed at this location. The tornado travelled northeast damaging a number of large trees between CR 51 and 2000E. The tornado crossed 2000E and damaged a large number of trees east of 2000E. The damage width at this location was two tenths of a mile. Further to the northeast, the tornado damaged a church at the intersection of Roodhouse Road and County Road 2075E. The entire church was displaced about 10 feet. A machine shed south of the church was destroyed with debris extending to the north towards the church. Many trees were damaged in this area. The tornado crossed Roodhouse Road and travelled just south of a farmstead on CR 2100E. There was minor shingle damage to the home, one machine shed was damaged. A second farm sustained damage on CR 2600N, about a quarter of a mile west of Illinois Route 267. At this location, one barn and three machine sheds sustained severe damage while parts of the roof and sides of the farm house were uplifted and displaced to the east. The damage path width was a tenth of a mile at this location. Debris from these structures were tossed over 120 yards to the east. The tornado crossed Illinois Route 267 and travelled over an open field then crossed CR 298 where tree damage occurred. The tornado severely damaged a large section of mature pine trees just south of CR 304 and CR 2700N in an open field before it lifted and dissipated.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 11:36 UTC and running to 16:53 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 13:00 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), 31 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The St Louis radar (KLSX), 97 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 16:12 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 2009 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

25 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.