Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 2011

EF0 tornado, Littleton, Illinois, June 10, 2011

This EF0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Schuyler County on June 10, 2011, touching down at 7:05 PM CDT and reaching 10 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
June 10, 2011
Touchdown
7:05 PM CDT (00:05 UTC)
Lifted
7:06 PM CDT (00:06 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.2 miles (0.4 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Schuyler County
Touchdown point
40.228, -90.634
Lift-off point
40.228, -90.630
Record number
1106101805-01

What the Weather Service recorded

An area of low pressure tracking from northern Missouri into the southern Great Lakes triggered scattered thunderstorms across central Illinois during the afternoon and evening of June 10th into the early morning hours of the 11th. A few of the storms produced large hail up to the size of golf balls, as well as gusty winds of 50 to 60 mph. In addition, a brief tornado touch down occurred in rural Schuyler County near Littleton.

A tornado briefly touched down in an open field southwest of Littleton. No damage was observed.

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

The warnings

27 minutes of warning. NWS ILX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:38 UTC, 27 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:45 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 23:10 UTC and running to 05:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:10 UTC05:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchILX
23:38 UTC00:45 UTCTornado WarningILX
00:15 UTC00:54 UTCTornado WarningILX
00:27 UTC06:30 UTCFlood AdvisoryILX

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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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

11.9 hours after it, 155 km from the path. June 11, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Davenport, at 12:00Z on 2011-06-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 9 joules per kilogram, CIN -26, lifted condensation level 504 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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 2011-06-11The 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 38 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 47 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
9 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-26 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
504 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
47 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
38 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
125 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Lincoln radar (KILX), 110 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:04 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
23:24 UTCHAIL 1.5GriggsvillePike, ILTIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR.
23:25 UTCTSTM WND DMGW West PointHancock, IL12 INCH DIAMETER TREE BRANCH DOWN ALONG WITH SEVERAL OTHER SMALLER BRANCHES AND TREE LIMBS.
23:25 UTCHAIL 0.75W West PointHancock, ILDIME TO PENNY SIZE HAIL
23:31 UTCHAIL 0.25WoodvilleAdams, IL
23:40 UTCTSTM WND GST 60Ese BowenHancock, ILESTIMATED 55 TO 60 MPH. LOTS OF SMALL LIMBS DOWN.
23:40 UTCHAIL 1.25Ese BowenHancock, IL
23:44 UTCHAIL 2BeverlyAdams, IL1.5 TO 2 INCH DIAMETER HAIL
23:45 UTCTSTM WND DMGAugustaHancock, ILLARGE TREE DOWN. REPORT FROM AUGUSTA FIRE DEPARTMENT RELAYED BY HANCOCK COUNTY SHERIFFS OFFICE.
23:45 UTCTSTM WND GST 55Sw AugustaHancock, IL
23:45 UTCHAIL 1.75Sw AugustaHancock, IL
23:45 UTCHAIL 2.75AugustaHancock, ILGOLF BALL TO BASEBALL SIZED HAIL. REPORT FROM AUGUSTA FIRE DEPARTMENT RELAYED BY HANCOCK COUNTY SHERIFFS OFFICE.
23:50 UTCTSTM WND DMGBowenHancock, ILPOWER LINES DOWN EAST OF BOWEN. POWER OUTAGE IN BOWEN.
23:55 UTCTSTM WND DMG4 W BrooklynSchuyler, ILONE LARGE TREE UPROOTED AND SEVERAL PINE TREES SNAPPED OFF
23:59 UTCHAIL 1.754 W BrooklynSchuyler, IL
23:59 UTCHAIL 1.75BeverlyAdams, IL
00:00 UTCTSTM WND DMGBowenHancock, ILPOWER LINES DOWN EAST OF BOWEN. POWER OUTAGE IN BOWEN.
00:34 UTCHAIL 13 S Mount SterlingBrown, IL
00:39 UTCHAIL 0.7Mount SterlingBrown, IL
01:32 UTCHAIL 1.75ClaytonAdams, ILHAIL COVERING GROUND.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2011 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

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.