EF2 tornado, Farmersville to Honey Bend, Illinois, April 19, 2011

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

April 19, 2011

Touchdown

6:08 PM CDT (23:08 UTC)

Lifted

6:12 PM CDT (23:12 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

3.2 miles (5.1 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Montgomery County

Touchdown point

39.461, -89.648

Lift-off point

39.458, -89.589

Record number

1104191708-01

24 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LSX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 150 mph.

• .40% of roof shingles removed. Garage door blown in. Garage wall blown out
• Shingles removed off roof.
• Some siding removed with one doormer badly damaged. Otherwise shingles and sofet damage. Large tree limb damage as well. Some damage to nearby shed as well.
• Shed behind house destroyed as well.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

A warm front was lifting northward through the region, triggering numerous showers and thunderstorms. Some of the storms produced tornadoes as well as a lot of large hail. There were 6 tornadoes with this event, including an EF3.

The tornado began around 608 pm, one third of a mile northwest of the intersection of Studebaker Avenue and West Frontage Road, or around one and a quarter miles north of Farmersville. The tornado moved east snapping 3 power poles along the frontage road just to the west of Interstate 55. A grain bin originally located just to the west of I-55 was rolled across the interstate and deposited in a tree line a quarter mile to the east of the interstate. A number of trees were also snapped or uprooted in the vicinity of the grain bin. The tornado moved slightly south of due east damaging or destroying two machine sheds along County Road 400E. Debris was scattered well to the east and the tornado appeared to lift near County Road 600E. The maximum damage from this tornado was rated EF-2. The path length was around 3.2 miles with a maximum width of 150 yards.

A tornado touched down about five miles north of Litchfield, Illinois, where it snapped off a dozen power poles on East 2nd Road near intersection with North 17th Avenue. As it travelled to the east along North 17th Avenue it destroyed several outbuildings, sheds and silos and caused minor to moderate damage to couple of homes just west of Interstate 55. The tornado then crossed I-55 knocking down several power lines onto the highway, causing the interstate to be shut down for about 4 hours until they could be removed. Just east of I-55, the tornado caused extensive damage to a two story log home. A section of the roof was removed and the north and south outer walls were removed as well. Further to the east several farmsteads had minor to moderate damage to homes, barns and other outbuildings. Most of the homes and outbuildings sustained damage rated EF1. One home on Rugby Trail near intersection with North 17th Avenue, approximately three quarters of a mile southeast of Honey Bend, sustained extensive damage with the entire west facing roof was removed. A large outbuilding was also completely destroyed at this farmstead. The damage was rated EF2, with peak winds of 120 mph. The tornado then continued to the east causing minor damage to a home on Shady Lane, then lifted and dissipated near the northern end of Lake Lou Yaeger. The maximum path width of the tornado was 200 yards and the length of the tornado was 3.5 miles. No injuries were reported with this tornado.

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

7 minutes of warning. NWS LSX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:01 UTC, 7 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:05 UTC and running to 02:00 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 19:37 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.

Taylorville (TAZ), 26 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Lincoln radar (KILX), 80 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:07 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 2011 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

69 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 70 of them

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.