Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 2010
EF0 tornado, Durley, Illinois, December 31, 2010
This EF0 tornado ran 1.7 miles across Bond County on December 31, 2010, touching down at 1:05 PM CST and reaching 100 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.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- December 31, 2010
- Touchdown
- 1:05 PM CST (19:05 UTC)
- Lifted
- 1:07 PM CST (19:07 UTC)
- On the ground
- 2 minutes
- Path length
- 1.7 miles (2.8 km)
- Path width
- 100 yards (91 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Bond County
- Touchdown point
- 38.901, -89.398
- Lift-off point
- 38.917, -89.374
- Record number
- 1012311305-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Severe thunderstorms developed ahead of a strong cold front, triggering numerous showers and thunderstorms. A number of tornadoes were reported as well as damaging winds and large hail.
A tornado touched down on the north side of Greenville near the intersection of North Hena Street and North Dewey Street. An agricultural building at the high school sustained roof damage with some additional minor roof and tree damage noticed at an adjacent house. The tornado then moved northeast causing significant damage to a large tree on the north side of Illinois Route 140. Minor roof and siding damage was noted on several houses on Cloverfield Lane and North Idler Lane. The tornado continued northeast producing additional minor roof and tree damage on Country Club and Woburn Roads before dissipating.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
27 minutes of warning. NWS LSX issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:38 UTC, 27 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:45 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 16:45 UTC and running to 21:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16:45 UTC | 21:00 UTC | Tornado Watch | LSX |
| 17:59 UTC | 19:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | LSX |
| 18:38 UTC | 19:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | LSX |
| 18:57 UTC | 19:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | LSX |
| 19:40 UTC | 20:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | LSX |
| 20:22 UTC | 21:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | LSX |
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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:23 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
7.1 hours before the tornado, 154 km from the path. December 31, 2010.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -66951 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 506 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 58 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 56 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 450 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 427 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 3.7 K/km
Lincoln, IL (KILX), 00:00Z
4.9 hours after it, 154 km from the path. January 1, 2011.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 10 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -144 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 39 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1348 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 69 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 22 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 11 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 76 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.2 K/km
The radar
The St Louis radar (KLSX), 115 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:03 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18:26 UTC | TSTM WND GST 70 | Mascoutah | St. Clair, IL | SIDING OFF OF HOME AND OUTBUILDINGS. |
| 18:26 UTC | TORNADO | 1 N O'Fallon | St. Clair, IL | |
| 19:05 UTC | TORNADO | 1 N Greenville | Bond, IL | TORNADO DAMAGE TO AN AG BULDING NORTH SIDE OF GREENVILLE IL...ALSO DAMAGE TO SEVERAL HOMES NE OF TOWN. RP |
| 19:07 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Ne Greenville | Bond, IL | |
| 19:40 UTC | FLOOD | Wood River | Madison, IL | STREET FLOODING...MAINLY PONDING OF WATER IN LOW AREAS...IN WOOD RIVER. |
| 20:40 UTC | HAIL 0.25 | 2 E Huey | Clinton, IL |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2010 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of December 31, 2010
28 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 31 | 12:17 AM CST | EF0 | Stone, MO | 1.8 | 75 | $750,000 | ||
| December 31 | 12:18 AM CST | EF1 | Christian, MO | 5.3 | 250 | 2 | $200,000 | |
| December 31 | 12:31 AM CST | EF0 | Webster, MO | 3.1 | 150 | $100,000 | ||
| December 31 | 6:05 AM CST | EF3 | Adair, OK to AR | 21.1 | 500 | 4 | 10 | $1.9 million |
| December 31 | 7:48 AM CST | EF0 | Carroll, AR to MO | 4.3 | 50 | $15,000 | ||
| December 31 | 8:37 AM CST | EF0 | Polk, MO | 1.0 | 50 | $5,000 | ||
| December 31 | 9:43 AM CST | EF3 | Pulaski, MO | 7.5 | 500 | 4 | $90 million | |
| December 31 | 10:06 AM CST | EF3 | Phelps, MO | 11.0 | 500 | 2 | 6 | $1.0 million |
| December 31 | 10:12 AM CST | EF1 | Phelps, MO | 6.8 | 440 | 2 | $500,000 | |
| December 31 | 10:40 AM CST | EF1 | Crawford, MO | 6.4 | 100 | |||
| December 31 | 11:16 AM CST | EF1 | Franklin, MO | 0.8 | 100 | $40,000 | ||
| December 31 | 11:17 AM CST | EF0 | Franklin, MO | 0.4 | 50 | |||
| December 31 | 11:19 AM CST | EF2 | Franklin, MO | 12.2 | 370 | |||
| December 31 | 11:25 AM CST | EF0 | Saint Charles, MO | 2.0 | 50 | |||
| December 31 | 11:27 AM CST | EF1 | Jefferson, MO | 8.6 | 50 | |||
| December 31 | 11:48 AM CST | EF3 | Saint Louis, MO | 6.7 | 440 | 1 | 6 | $1.0 million |
| December 31 | 11:48 AM CST | EF1 | Saint Louis, MO | 1.7 | 175 | |||
| December 31 | 11:56 AM CST | EF0 | Calhoun, IL | 3.6 | 50 | |||
| December 31 | 12:08 PM CST | EF1 | City of Saint Louis, MO | 2.7 | 100 | |||
| December 31 | 12:30 PM CST | EF0 | Saint Clair, IL | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| December 31 | 12:37 PM CST | EF3 | Menard, IL | 3.6 | 200 | 1 | $12 million | |
| December 31 | 1:24 PM CST | EF2 | Carter, MO | 2.6 | 200 | $200,000 | ||
| December 31 | 2:25 PM CST | EF2 | Butler, MO | 0.2 | 100 | $250,000 | ||
| December 31 | 2:35 PM CST | EF0 | LaSalle Parish, LA | 0.4 | 50 | $20,000 | ||
| December 31 | 4:11 PM CST | EF1 | Warren, MS | 3.6 | 100 | $110,000 | ||
| December 31 | 4:44 PM CST | EF2 | Hinds, MS | 26.2 | 800 | $2.7 million | ||
| December 31 | 5:42 PM CST | EF0 | Rankin, MS | 1.4 | 50 | $2,000 | ||
| December 31 | 8:09 PM CST | EF1 | Lincoln, MS | 2.1 | 50 | $250,000 |
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.