EF2 tornado, St Morgan to Beaver Creek, Illinois, April 22, 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 22, 2011

Touchdown

8:55 PM CDT (01:55 UTC)

Lifted

9:30 PM CDT (02:30 UTC)

On the ground

35 minutes

Path length

18.2 miles (29.3 km)

Path width

700 yards (640 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Madison, Clinton and Bond counties

Touchdown point

38.703, -89.714

Lift-off point

38.792, -89.397

Record number

1104221955-01

56 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LSX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 130 mph.

• Shingles lost. Several rotten trees and limbs snapped. One large tree uprooted. Latzer Homestead (1464 Old Trenton Road).
• Farm building with roof damage. Debris scattered 1/2 mile to the north.
• Snapped wooden power poles.
• Large metal shed (~40 x 80') had southwest corner cave in. Large part of the roof blown off with large panels scattered a mile downwind. Farm also had small open block building destroyed. Second open pole barn lost west end of roof. Minor tree damage and shingles lost off house.

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

A strong cold front moved through region. With plenty of moisture, instability and decent low level shear, severe storms developed along the Interstate 70 corridor in Missouri and Illinois. Numerous reports of large hail and 5 tornadoes occurred with this event. One of the tornadoes was a long track one that moved through the St. Louis metropolitan area with it being rated an EF4, with only a few minor injuries and no deaths. Also, quite a bit of rain fell during this event and caused flash flooding. The flash flooding persisted for several days as additional rounds of heavy rain fell over the same region through the 26th of April.

The tornado first touched down 3 miles southwest of Highland in Madison County, just to the east of Bluemound Road around 855 pm. It quickly moved east snapping and uprooting trees. Just before reaching Illinois Route 160, it destroyed a large metal farm building and carried the metal panels about a mile downwind. On Old Trenton Road, it snapped three wooden power poles and snapped trees and caused minor damage to a barn roof on a farmstead. As it continued to move east it widened to 700 yards as it passed south of Highland. It caused significant damage to trees, power poles and farm outbuildings in addition to minor roof damage. Near the intersection of St. Rose Road and Iberg Road, extensive tree damage occurred with one tree falling on a home and a second falling on a prefabricated carport. The tornado continued to move east causing varying degrees of damage to five homes in a subdivision just north of St. Rose Road. The tornado then moved across Waage Road blowing out multiple windows of a farm house and destroying a large metal shed. The tornado then crossed Baumann Road into Clinton County. The maximum intensity for this segment was rated EF2 and was on the ground for 6.5 miles before crossing into Clinton County. The maximum width of damage was 700 yards. As for the entire tornado, it was rated EF2, with maximum wind speeds of 130 mph. The maximum width of the tornado was 700 yards and the total length of the tornado was 18.2 miles.

The tornado crossed from Madison County into Clinton County along Baumann Road. It continued to produce damage to farm outbuildings and minor roof damage to homes. On Keyesport Road, the tornado reached its maximum intensity between Baumann Road and Watertower Road. A farm house was destroyed when it lost its entire roof structure and the front wall partially collapsed. The rest of the farm had six buildings that were either destroyed or severely damaged. A hog farm also suffered extensive damage farther to the east on Keyesport Road. The tornado then turned east northeast and crossed into Bond County. The maximum intensity for this segment was rated EF2 and was on the ground for 3.1 miles before crossing into Bond County. The maximum width of damage was 500 yards. As for the entire tornado, it was rated EF2, with maximum wind speeds of 130 mph. The maximum width of the tornado was 700 yards and the total length of the tornado was 18.2 miles.

The tornado crossed from Clinton County into Bond County where it continued to snap and uproot trees, severely damage outbuildings and cause minor roof damage to homes before it finally dissipated around 930 pm about 7 miles south of Greenville. The maximum intensity for this segment was rated EF1 and was on the ground for 8.6 miles before lifting and dissipating. The maximum width of damage was 500 yards. As for the entire tornado, it was rated EF2, with maximum wind speeds of 130 mph. The maximum width of the tornado was 700 yards and the total length of the tornado was 18.2 miles.

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

22 minutes of warning. NWS LSX issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:33 UTC, 22 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:38 UTC and running to 03:00 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. The outlook in force was issued at 00:59 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 St Louis radar (KLSX), 98 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:54 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

19 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.