Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 2010

EF0 tornado, Laura, Illinois, May 25, 2010

This EF0 tornado ran 0.7 miles across Peoria County on May 25, 2010, touching down at 2:10 PM CDT and reaching 15 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
May 25, 2010
Touchdown
2:10 PM CDT (19:10 UTC)
Lifted
2:14 PM CDT (19:14 UTC)
On the ground
4 minutes
Path length
0.7 miles (1.0 km)
Path width
15 yards (14 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Peoria County
Touchdown point
40.948, -89.857
Lift-off point
40.952, -89.868
Record number
1005251310-01

What the Weather Service recorded

An unseasonably hot and humid airmass persisted across central Illinois on May 25th. Numerous outflow boundaries left behind by convection from the day before served as focusing mechanisms for additional thunderstorms...mainly during the afternoon and evening. Some of the storms produced small hail and locally heavy rainfall that led to flash flooding. In addition...a tornado briefly touched down in northern Peoria County.

A landspout tornado developed, as a gustnado on an outflow boundary spun-up and connected with a convergence line funnel, in a field northwest of Princeville. The landspout tracked slowly to the west-northwest for 4 minutes before dissipating. No damage was reported.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:40 UTC01:09 UTCFlash Flood WarningILX
19:58 UTC21:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningILX

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:30 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

7.2 hours before the tornado, 92 km from the path. May 25, 2010.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Davenport, at 12:00Z on 2010-05-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1802 joules per kilogram, CIN -91, lifted condensation level 1047 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2010-05-25The 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 16 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 8 knots.1939Sfc1 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
1802 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-91 J/kg
Surface CAPE
26 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1047 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
16 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
32 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

Davenport, (KDVN), 00:00Z

4.8 hours after it, 92 km from the path. May 26, 2010.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Davenport, at 00:00Z on 2010-05-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 78 joules per kilogram, CIN -229, lifted condensation level 1898 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2010-05-26The 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 -19 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 19 knots.1939Sfc1 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
78 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-229 J/kg
Surface CAPE
400 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1898 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-19 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
35 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Quad Cities radar (KDVN), 95 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:08 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
17:30 UTCHAIL 0.5East PeoriaTazewell, IL
18:03 UTCHAIL 0.252 E MetamoraWoodford, IL
19:10 UTCTORNADO5 Wnw PrincevillePeoria, ILTORNADO TOUCHDOWN IN AN OPEN FIELD...MOVING SLOWLY TO THE WEST-NORTHWEST. NO DAMAGE REPORTED. TORNADO DISSIPATED AFTER 4 MINUTES. DELAYED REPORT.
19:33 UTCFLASH FLOODDillonTazewell, IL3 TO 4 INCHES OF WATER COVERING TOWNLAND AND SPRINGFIELD ROADS.
19:33 UTCFLASH FLOODTremontTazewell, IL4 TO 6 INCHES OF RAIN OVER THE ROAD IN DOWNTOWN TREMONT.
20:00 UTCHEAVY RAIN 1.97St. DavidFulton, ILRAINFALL OVER THE PAST HOUR AND A HALF.
20:05 UTCHEAVY RAIN 1MagnoliaPutnam, ILRAINFALL IN ABOUT 15 MINUTE TIME PERIOD. TIME IS ESTIMATED.

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 May 25, 2010

29 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 2511:30 AM CDTEF0Live Oak, TX0.225$5,000
May 253:13 PM MDTEF0Roosevelt, NM0.310
May 253:31 PM MDTEF0Kiowa, CO0.050
May 253:31 PM MDTEF0Kiowa, CO0.175
May 253:32 PM MDTEF0Kiowa, CO0.175
May 253:37 PM MDTEF0Kiowa, CO0.4100
May 253:41 PM MDTEF0Kiowa, CO0.250
May 253:48 PM MDTEF0Kiowa, CO0.150
May 253:48 PM MDTEF0Kiowa, CO0.350
May 253:55 PM MDTEF0Curry, NM0.110
May 253:55 PM MDTEF0Kiowa, CO0.375
May 253:56 PM MDTEF0Kiowa, CO0.150
May 253:56 PM MDTEF0Kiowa, CO0.250
May 254:07 PM MDTEF0Kiowa, CO1.275
May 254:18 PM MDTEF0Kiowa, CO0.250
May 255:17 PM MDTEF0Greeley, KS0.810
May 255:20 PM MDTEF0Kiowa, CO0.150
May 255:49 PM MDTEF0Greeley, KS0.625
May 257:52 PM CDTEF0Castro, TX0.250
May 258:06 PM CDTEF0Gove, KS0.310
May 258:11 PM CDTEF0Castro, TX0.120
May 258:14 PM CDTEF0Castro, TX0.120
May 258:14 PM CDTEF0Gove, KS4.875
May 258:26 PM CDTEF1Gove, KS21.375$23,000
May 258:44 PM CDTEF1Gove, KS9.950$25,000
May 257:52 PM MDTEF0Baca, CO1.175$10,000
May 258:00 PM MDTEF1Baca, CO2.5300$5,000
May 2510:04 PM CDTEF0Trego, KS5.9150
May 2510:20 PM CDTEF0Ellis, KS6.975

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.