EF2 tornado, Missal to Dwight, Illinois, June 5, 2010

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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

June 5, 2010

Touchdown

9:12 PM CDT (02:12 UTC)

Lifted

9:25 PM CDT (02:25 UTC)

On the ground

13 minutes

Path length

6.0 miles (9.6 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

1

Injuries

13

Property damage

$3.0 million

County

Livingston County

Touchdown point

41.088, -88.521

Lift-off point

41.087, -88.407

Record number

1006052012-01

Severe thunderstorms, including a few long tracked supercells moved across central and northern Illinois, producing damaging winds, hail and tornadoes.

Very quickly after the tornado that hit Streator lifted, yet another tornado touched down over extreme northern Livingston county approximately one quarter mile south of the county line and about a half mile west of 1100 E Road. Shortly after touching down, this tornado caused severe damage to homes on 1100 E Road and destroyed a barn as well. There were also several large trees downed in this location. As the tornado continued eastward, it completely collapsed a metal truss high tension electrical tower and bent over several other metal truss electrical towers in its path, which is consistent with low end EF3 damage. At this time the tornado was moving through an extremely rural area, however there was also a lone hardwood tree in its path that was debarked, with only large de-leafed branches remaining. ||The tornado continued eastward crossing Illinois Route 170 just south of the LaSalle and Livingston county line where hardwood trees were snapped. Large trees were broken at a farm house and a machine shed and grain bins were destroyed. The tornado then moved eastward for several more miles downing multiple trees and resulting in some minor structural damage between 1700 E Road and 1800 E Road.

The beginning of the Dwight tornado occurred about 6 miles west of Dwight and about a quarter mile south of IL Route 17. On N 2200 E Road, 0.3 miles south of IL Route 17, a farm house sustained damage to windows, siding, and shingles, with many trees uprooted or damaged. Outbuildings were also damaged. The tornado at this point was rated EF1, with a path width of 70 yards. Debris from this farm was spread 200 yards wide across the field at N 2300E Road. ||The tornado proceeded to strike the golf course at N 2400 E Road, where numerous large trees were snapped and uprooted. Golf cart sheds were unroofed or severely damaged. At this point the tornado was rated low end EF2 with a path width of 300 yards. The tornado then moved east across Interstate 55 and moved into Dwight, damaging a lumber yard and other businesses. At Williams Street and old Route 66 a mobile home park was hit. Fourteen people were injured. One person who was seriously injured, later died. At the mobile home park, 35 mobile homes were destroyed. Damage here was rated EF2. Large trees were uprooted and power poles were snapped at the railroad tracks. At a ball field a little farther east, trees and fences were damaged and an announcer's booth was destroyed. Slightly farther east, there was minor damage to a church, but the church's garage was destroyed. There was damage to the high school auditorium roof and facade, and a greenhouse. A storage garage was destroyed at the high school. ||The tornado then continued east into a subdivision between Philmar Street and Prospect Avenue, where many large trees were downed on top of homes. At Sunset Drive and Wilmac Street a garage door and roof were taken off. A roof was taken off a house on Linden Street a half block west of Il Route 47. Three houses were uninhabitable and had to be destroyed. More than 100 homes had some damage. Damage in Dwight was rated high end EF1 to low end EF2. The tornado dissipated in an open field east of Route 47.

The deaths

1 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

26 minutes of warning. NWS LOT issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:46 UTC, 26 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 00:40 UTC and running to 06:33 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, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 01:06 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.

The Chicago radar (KLOT), 66 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:10 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 2010 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

42 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.