Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 2011

EF1 tornado, Clay City, Illinois, May 25, 2011

This EF1 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Clay County on May 25, 2011, touching down at 7:18 PM CDT and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $510,000 of property damage.

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 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

    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
EF1
Date
May 25, 2011
Touchdown
7:18 PM CDT (00:18 UTC)
Lifted
7:19 PM CDT (00:19 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
75 yards (69 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$510,000
County
Clay County
Touchdown point
38.676, -88.369
Lift-off point
38.683, -88.352
Record number
1105251818-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A deep area of low pressure lifting from the Plains into the Upper Midwest pulled a strong cold front eastward toward the Mississippi River during the afternoon of May 25th. Severe thunderstorms developed ahead of the cold front, as well as along a warm front lifting northward through the area. Many of the storms produced large hail up to the size of golf balls and damaging winds in excess of 60 mph. In addition, 6 tornadoes touched down across central Illinois, including an EF2 tornado that caused significant damage south of Robinson in Crawford County.

A tornado developed about 1 mile southwest of Clay City. The tornado tracked northeast and dissipated near Clay City High School. Structures damaged along the path of the tornado included a barn and several garages, and 15 homes sustained minor to moderate roof damage. One concrete block storage building collapsed. Numerous trees were also damaged.

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

The warnings

17 minutes of warning. NWS ILX issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:01 UTC, 17 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 16:11 UTC and running to 01:41 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
10:51 UTC16:11 UTCTornado WatchILX
16:11 UTC01:41 UTCTornado WatchILX
18:20 UTC04:17 UTCFlash Flood WatchILX
23:11 UTC00:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningILX
00:01 UTC00:30 UTCTornado WarningILX
00:24 UTC00:46 UTCTornado 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 High Risk, with a 0.30 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:39 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.

Lincoln, IL (KILX), 12:00Z

11.7 hours after it, 165 km from the path. May 26, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2011-05-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 472 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2011-05-26The 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 67 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 27 knots.193958Sfc1 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
472 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
67 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
86 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Evansville,IN radar (KVWX), 72 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:17 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
22:53 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD5 N Mount VernonJefferson, ILFUNNEL CLOUD REPORTED BETWEEN MOUNT VERNON AND DIX.
23:30 UTCTSTM WND DMGEffinghamEffingham, ILSOME SMALL TO MEDIUM TREE LIMBS DOWN...AND A FEW POWER LINES DOWN.
00:10 UTCTSTM WND DMGFloraClay, ILTREES AND POWER LINES BLOWN DOWN...ONE TREE WAS BLOWN DOWN ON HOUSE
00:20 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 E Clay CityClay, ILNUMEROUS TREES BLOWN DOWN ALONG ROUTE 50 FROM TWO MILES EAST OF CLAY CITY TO THE RICHLAND COUNTY LINE.
00:20 UTCTSTM WND DMGClay CityClay, ILNUMEROUS TREES BLOWN DOWN IN TOWN
00:22 UTCTSTM WND GST 60LawrencevilleLawrence, IL
00:22 UTCTSTM WND GST 824 Se Clay CityClay, ILMEASURED WITH DAVIS WEATHER-VIEW WIND EQUIPMENT.
00:30 UTCTSTM WND DMGNewtonJasper, ILSEVERAL BUILDINGS WERE DAMAGED ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF NEWTON.
00:35 UTCTORNADO1 Nw OlneyRichland, ILBRIEF TORNADO TOUCHDOWN
00:35 UTCTORNADO3 Nw OlneyRichland, ILBRIEF TORNADO TOUCHDOWN IN FIELD. FROM COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT STORM SUMMARY FOLLOWUP.
00:40 UTCFUNNEL CLOUDMount CarmelWabash, ILREPORTED OVER COMMUNITY AT THIS TIME.
00:40 UTCHAIL 1BellmontWabash, IL
00:43 UTCFUNNEL CLOUDBellmontWabash, IL
00:43 UTCHAIL 1.25BellmontWabash, IL
00:45 UTCHAIL 0.884 Nw Mount CarmelWabash, IL
00:46 UTCTSTM WND DMGAlbionEdwards, ILTREES DOWN.
00:47 UTCTSTM WND GST 60LawrencevilleLawrence, IL
01:00 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 N LawrencevilleLawrence, ILNUMEROUS TREES DOWN ALONG ROUTE 1 TOWARD BIRDS...SOME TREES 2 TO 3 FEET IN DIAMATER
01:00 UTCTSTM WND DMGLawrencevilleLawrence, ILNUMEROUS TREES DOWN...ONE TREE DOWN ON MOBILE HOME

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

The other tornadoes of May 25, 2011

93 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 251:30 AM CDTEF1Webster, MO9.3100$20,000
May 257:35 AM CDTEF1Macon, IL1.075$165,000
May 257:39 AM CDTEF1Macon, IL1.575$100,000
May 259:04 AM CDTEF1Kankakee, IL5.850$250,000
May 259:13 AM CDTEF0Newton, IN0.120$25,000
May 259:19 AM CDTEF2Newton, IN1.9300$50,000
May 259:24 AM CDTEF1Jasper, IN2.9100$500
May 259:26 AM CDTEF1Jasper, IN1.9100$50,000
May 2510:45 AM EDTEF0Pulaski, IN0.850
May 2510:45 AM CDTEF0Miami, KS0.140$5,000
May 2511:10 AM CDTEF0Johnson, KS0.760$10,000
May 2511:22 AM CDTEF0Johnson, KS0.140
May 2511:35 AM CDTEF0Cass, MO0.140
May 2511:38 AM CDTEF0Johnson, KS0.140
May 2512:22 PM CDTEF2Pettis, MO2.150020$4.0 million
May 2512:33 PM CDTEF0Clay, MO0.140
May 2512:45 PM CDTEF0Clay, MO0.140
May 2512:52 PM CDTEF0Pettis, MO0.140
May 251:04 PM CDTEF0Cooper, MO0.140
May 251:07 PM CDTEF0Lafayette, MO0.140
May 252:15 PM CDTEF1Montgomery, MO7.1100
May 253:26 PM EDTEF0Van Wert, OH0.140
May 252:56 PM CDTEF1Oregon, MO2.5100$20,000
May 253:49 PM CDTEF3Carter, MO47.41,2002$800,000
May 254:13 PM CDTEF1Jackson, AR5.5500$40,000
May 255:15 PM EDTEF1Decatur, IN0.8600$500,000
May 255:20 PM EDTEF1Decatur, IN0.1400$250,000
May 254:35 PM CDTEF1Madison, MO5.540
May 254:37 PM CDTEF1Wayne, MO17.8150$70,000
May 254:44 PM CDTEF0Carter, MO0.550$2,000
May 254:45 PM CDTEF1Des Moines, IA4.8100$250,000
May 254:46 PM CDTEF1Madison, MO5.3440
May 254:47 PM CDTEF1Madison, MO4.3580
May 254:51 PM CDTEF0Perry, MO0.360$3,000
May 254:58 PM CDTEF0Ripley, MO0.750
May 256:00 PM EDTEF1Huron, OH8.050$250,000
May 255:00 PM CDTEF1Des Moines, IA3.650$50,000
May 255:14 PM CDTEF0Butler, MO0.740
May 256:14 PM EDTEF0Hardin, OH0.225
May 255:26 PM CDTEF1Bollinger, MO13.0250$30,000
May 256:06 PM CDTEF0McLean, IL0.925$8,000
May 256:09 PM CDTEF1McLean, IL10.375$10,000
May 257:10 PM EDTEF0Montgomery, OH0.125$5,000
May 256:18 PM CDTEF1Cape Girardeau, MO2.1250$20,000
May 256:18 PM CDTEF0St. Francis, AR1.1100
May 256:28 PM CDTEF2Jefferson, IL13.5250$4.0 million
May 256:30 PM CDTEF0Scott, MO0.450$1,000
May 257:30 PM EDTEF0Summit, OH4.250$200,000
May 256:39 PM CDTEF1Union, IL2.0125$150,000
May 256:40 PM CDTEF1Pulaski, IL5.5250$50,000
May 256:45 PM CDTEF1Pulaski, IL10.0120$40,000
May 256:48 PM CDTEF1Crittenden, AR2.5100$500,000
May 256:55 PM CDTEF2Pulaski, IL19.9325$255,000
May 256:58 PM CDTEF0Champaign, IL0.215$5,000
May 257:58 PM EDTEF3Lawrence, IN6.8300$150,000
May 255:08 PM PDTEF1Glenn, CA21.6120$200,000
May 255:12 PM PDTEF1Glenn, CA26.4120$150,000
May 257:35 PM CDTEF0Richland, IL0.210
May 257:57 PM CDTEF2Crawford, IL5.5200$920,000
May 257:58 PM CDTEF0Union Parish, LA5.5150

All 94 of them

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.