EF0 tornado, Henning to Heaton, Illinois, April 19, 2011

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

April 19, 2011

Touchdown

8:02 PM CDT (01:02 UTC)

Lifted

8:05 PM CDT (01:05 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

2.7 miles (4.4 km)

Path width

25 yards (23 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$225,000

County

Vermilion County

Touchdown point

40.306, -87.701

Lift-off point

40.333, -87.663

Record number

1104191902-01

A deepening area of low pressure tracked along the I-72 corridor during the evening of April 19th. A very sharp temperature gradient existed across central Illinois at the time, with readings ranging from the middle 40s north of the low track to around 80 degrees to the south. Severe thunderstorms developed along this strong frontal boundary in advance of the approaching low, producing widespread wind damage and large hail. In addition, 6 tornadoes touched down from Christian County east-northeast into Vermilion and Edgar counties.

A tornado touched down near Henning at 702 PM CST. It traveled northeastward, damaging roofs, siding, and awnings on numerous houses. The tornado also knocked down a number of trees before dissipating 3 miles northeast of Henning at 705 PM CST.

A tornado touched down 4.4 miles east of Rossvile at 711 PM CST. It traveled northeastward, damaging 6 grain bins, 2 farmsteads, 2 large sheds, and a combine before dissipating 5.6 miles east-northeast of Rossville at 714 PM CST.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:38 UTC and running to 01:54 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 Slight 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 01:10 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 Indianapolis radar (KIND), 137 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:02 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.