Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 2010

EF0 tornado, Mozier to Belleview, Illinois, December 31, 2010

Name: EF0 tornado, Mozier to Belleview, Illinois, December 31, 2010
Start: 2010-12-31T17:56:00.000Z
End: 2010-12-31T17:59:00.000Z
Location: Mozier to Belleview, Illinois

From Mozier to Belleview, this EF0 tornado ran 3.6 miles across Calhoun County on December 31, 2010, touching down at 11:56 AM CST 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.

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: 11:56 AM CST (17:56 UTC)
Lifted: 11:59 AM CST (17:59 UTC)
On the ground: 3 minutes
Path length: 3.6 miles (5.9 km)
Path width: 50 yards (46 m)
Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
County: Calhoun County
Touchdown point: 39.311, -90.781
Lift-off point: 39.343, -90.726
Record number: 1012311156-01

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 three miles north northwest of Mozier in the Calhoun County conservation area called Rip Rap Landing. It crossed Illinois Route 96 near West Panther Creek Road and then traveled northeast crossing Hootowl Hollow Road before dissipating just west of Hillcrest. Damage was confined to uprooted trees.

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

The warnings

56 minutes of warning. NWS LSX issued a tornado warning for this county at 17:00 UTC, 56 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 13:29 UTC and running to 19:22 UTC.

Issued (UTC)	Expired	Product	Office
13:29 UTC	19:22 UTC	Tornado Watch	LSX
17:00 UTC	18:00 UTC	Tornado Warning	LSX
17:15 UTC	18:00 UTC	Tornado Warning	LSX
17:22 UTC	18:15 UTC	Tornado Warning	LSX
17:54 UTC	18:11 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.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the tornado touched down, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS St. Louis, MO wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Dec 31, 6:20 AM CST, 5 hours 36 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Dec 31, 6:20 AM CST, 5 hours 36 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION...UPDATED AVIATION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ST LOUIS MO
620 AM CST FRI DEC 31 2010

.DISCUSSION...
/211 AM CST FRI DEC 31 2010/

MAIN CONCERN WILL BE THUNDERSTORMS TODAY AND THE POTENTIAL FOR A FEW
SEVERE STORMS. LATEST RUNS OF THE RUC HAVE BEEN CONSISTENT IN
SHIFTING THE MAXIMUM OF 925-850MB MOISTURE CONVERGENCE FROM CNTRL/
NERN MO INTO W CNTRL IL BY 12Z ON THE NOSE OF THE 60KT LOW LEVEL
JET. THE RUC SHOWS THE BULK OF THIS FORCING SHIFTING NORTHEAST OF
THE CWA BY 15Z. THE NAM/GFS ARE IN RELATIVELY GOOD AGREEMENT
THEREAFTER THAT THERE WILL BE A MODEST INCREASE IN LARGE SCALE
ASCENT AS THE CLOSED 500MB LOW MOVES NEWD ACROSS THE CNTRL PLAINS.
THE VERTICAL MOTION WILL BECOME NEUTRAL OR DOWNWARD OVER THE CWA
LATER THIS AFTERNOON AT THE SAME TIME THE SFC COLD FRONT MOVES
ACROSS THE CWA. SO WHILE THERE MAY BE SOME MODEST RECOVERY AHEAD
OF THE FRONT...FORECAST SOUNDINGS ARE SHOWING A MID LEVEL
INVERSION SETTING UP THAT WOULD ALSO ACT TO SUPPRESS ADDITIONAL
STORM DEVELOPMENT. THIS GOES ALONG WITH THE RECENT HRRR SIMULATED
REFLECTIVITY FORECASTS WHICH SHOWS THE FIRST CLUSTER EXITING THE
NERN CWA BY MID MORNING...A SECOND CLUSTER MOVING ACROSS SERN MO
AT MID-MORNING FOLLOWED BY WEAK DISCRETE CELLS DEVELOPING ALONG
THE COLD FRONT THIS AFTERNOON. WHILE IT IS DIFFICULT TO DETERMINE
HOW THE THERMODYNAMIC PROFILES WILL EVOLVE TODAY...ENVIRONMENTAL
SHEAR WILL BE MORE THAN SUFFICIENT FOR A FEW SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS.

STORMS WILL QUICKLY EXIT THE EASTERN CWA THIS EVENING AS THE COLD
FRONT PUSHES EAST OF THE AREA.  STILL NOT SEEING A TRANSITION TO
SNOW AT THIS TIME AS THE ATMOSPHERE WILL LIKELY DRY OUT BEFORE IT
COOLS ENOUGH FOR SNOW. ALSO NOT SEEING ANY OBVIOUS ADDITIONAL
CHANCES FOR PRECIPITATION THROUGH EARLY NEXT WEEK AS THE UPPER
FLOW BECOMES ZONAL WITH ONLY WEAK SHORTWAVES MOVING THROUGH A DRY
ATMOSPHERE.

BRITT
&&

.AVIATION...
/620 AM CST FRI DEC 31 2010/

SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS AFFECTING KUIN AND KCOU...WHILE ST. LOUIS
METRO AREA TO SEE A BREAK IN THE PCPN THIS MORNING. CIGS TO BE
BOUNCING BETWEEN VFR AND MVFR FOR AN HOUR OR TWO. OTHERWISE...CIGS
TO REMAIN MVFR TIL COLD FRONT MOVES THROUGH. FRONT TO MOVE THROUGH
KCOU BY 22Z...KUIN...KSUS AND KSTL BY 01Z TONIGHT. STILL NOT SURE ON
EXACT TIMING OF PCPN AHEAD OF FRONTAL BOUNDARY...SO JUST HAVE VCNTY
TS MENTION AT KUIN...KSUS AND KSTL BEGINNING AROUND 20Z. EXPECT
GUSTY SOUTH WINDS TODAY AHEAD OF FRONT...THEN VEER TO THE WEST
BEHIND THE FRONT.

SPECIFICS FOR KSTL...MVFR CIGS AND GUSTY SOUTH WINDS TO PERSIST AT
KSTL THROUGH THE MORNING HOURS TODAY...BEFORE NEW STORMS FIRE AHEAD
OF A STRONG COLD FRONT THIS AFTERNOON. HAVE VCNTY TS MENTION BY
20Z...WITH FRONT MOVING THROUGH AROUND 01Z...WITH CIGS SCATTERING
OUT.

BYRD
&&

.LSX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
MO...NONE.
IL...NONE.
&&

WFO LSX

Hazardous weather outlook, Dec 31, 8:18 AM CST, 3 hours 38 minutes before

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ST LOUIS MO
818 AM CST FRI DEC 31 2010

ILZ058>060-064-065-069-070-074-079-095>102-MOZ018-019-026-027-
034>036-041-042-047>052-059>065-072>075-084-085-099-011145-
GREENE IL-MACOUPIN IL-MONTGOMERY IL-BOND IL-FAYETTE IL-CLINTON IL-
MARION IL-WASHINGTON IL-RANDOLPH IL-ADAMS IL-BROWN IL-PIKE IL-
CALHOUN IL-JERSEY IL-MADISON IL-ST. CLAIR IL-MONROE IL-KNOX MO-
LEWIS MO-SHELBY MO-MARION MO-MONROE MO-RALLS MO-PIKE MO-BOONE MO-
AUDRAIN MO-MONITEAU MO-COLE MO-OSAGE MO-CALLAWAY MO-MONTGOMERY MO-
LINCOLN MO-GASCONADE MO-WARREN MO-ST. CHARLES MO-FRANKLIN MO-
ST. LOUIS MO-ST. LOUIS CITY MO-JEFFERSON MO-CRAWFORD MO-
WASHINGTON MO-ST. FRANCOIS MO-STE. GENEVIEVE MO-IRON MO-
MADISON MO-REYNOLDS MO-
818 AM CST FRI DEC 31 2010

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF EASTERN AND
CENTRAL MISSOURI AS WELL AS WEST CENTRAL AND SOUTHWEST ILLINOIS.

.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT

THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED OVER THE REGION TODAY. A FEW OF THEM
WILL BE SEVERE...CAPABLE OF PRODUCING TORNADOES...LARGE HAIL AND
DAMAGING WIND GUSTS IN EXCESS OF 60 MPH.

SOUTHWESTERLY WINDS MAY GUST OVER 35 MPH OUTSIDE OF THUNDERSTORMS
TODAY IN CENTRAL MISSOURI.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SATURDAY THROUGH THURSDAY

WESTERLY WINDS MAY GUST TO 35 MPH ON SATURDAY OVER NORTHEAST
MISSOURI AND WEST CENTRAL ILLINOIS.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS LIKELY.

BRITT

In the hours before

Local storm report, Dec 31, 11:38 AM CST, 18 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ST LOUIS MO
1138 AM CST FRI DEC 31 2010

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

1138 AM     HAIL             MILTON                  39.56N  90.65W
12/31/2010  M0.25 INCH       PIKE               IL   TRAINED SPOTTER

&&

DYE

Local storm report, Dec 31, 11:40 AM CST, 16 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ST LOUIS MO
1140 AM CST FRI DEC 31 2010

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

1134 AM     TORNADO          ROBERTSVILLE            38.41N  90.82W
12/31/2010                   FRANKLIN           MO   TRAINED SPOTTER

            THERE IS A TORNADO ON THE GROUND JUST NORTHEAST OF
            ROBERTSVILLE MO. SEVERAL HOMES WERE DAMAGED

&&

FGLASS

Local storm report, Dec 31, 11:47 AM CST, 9 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ST LOUIS MO
1147 AM CST FRI DEC 31 2010

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

1140 AM     TORNADO          PACIFIC                 38.48N  90.75W
12/31/2010                   FRANKLIN           MO   AMATEUR RADIO

            AMATEUR RADIO OPERATOR REPORTED TORNADO ON THE GROUND
            IN PACIFIC MISSOURI. REPORT CAME IN AT 11 40 AM RP

&&

FGLASS

Local storm report, Dec 31, 11:48 AM CST, 8 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ST LOUIS MO
1148 AM CST FRI DEC 31 2010

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

1148 AM     HAIL             HILLSBORO               38.23N  90.57W
12/31/2010  E0.75 INCH       JEFFERSON          MO   TRAINED SPOTTER

&&

TES

Local storm report, Dec 31, 11:49 AM CST, 7 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ST LOUIS MO
1149 AM CST FRI DEC 31 2010

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

1148 AM     TSTM WND GST     HIGH RIDGE              38.46N  90.53W
12/31/2010  E60 MPH          JEFFERSON          MO   EMERGENCY MNGR

            WALL CLOUD

&&

TES

Local storm report, Dec 31, 11:55 AM CST, 1 minute before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ST LOUIS MO
1155 AM CST FRI DEC 31 2010

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

1155 AM     HAIL             MANCHESTER              38.59N  90.51W
12/31/2010  M0.25 INCH       ST. LOUIS          MO   TRAINED SPOTTER

&&

DYE

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

5.9 hours before the tornado, 206 km from the path. December 31, 2010.

Skew-T log-p

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.

Hodograph

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: -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

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lincoln, IL (KILX), 00:00Z

6.1 hours after it, 206 km from the path. January 1, 2011.

Skew-T log-p

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.

Hodograph

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

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The St Louis radar (KLSX), 70 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:56 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
16:52 UTC	TSTM WND GST 70	Martinsburg	Pike, IL	TREES DOWN JUST NORTH OF MARTINSBURG IL
16:57 UTC	HAIL 1	2 W Time	Pike, IL
17:00 UTC	HAIL 1	Pittsfield	Pike, IL
17:06 UTC	HAIL 0.88	Pittsfield	Pike, IL
17:38 UTC	HAIL 0.25	Milton	Pike, IL
17:51 UTC	TORNADO	Mozier	Calhoun, IL	NUMEROUS LARGE TREES DOWN ALONG HIGHWAY 96 WEST OF MOZIER IL 3 FOOT DIAMETER TREES DOWN BLOCKING HIGHWAY 96.
18:23 UTC	TORNADO	Roodhouse	Greene, IL
19:00 UTC	TORNADO	3 Ne Mozier	Calhoun, IL	TREE DAMAGE ON WEST PANTHER CREEK ROAD

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

This ground now

The live radar over the track Every 2010 tornado in Illinois Every tornado in Illinois since 1950 Warnings in force in Illinois now The 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	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	1:05 PM CST	EF0	Bond, IL	1.7	100
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.