Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 2012
EF1 tornado, Franklin to Rees Station, Illinois, August 31, 2012
From Franklin to Rees Station, this EF1 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Morgan County on August 31, 2012, touching down at 5:12 PM CDT and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 1, and did $230,000 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.
EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- August 31, 2012
- Touchdown
- 5:12 PM CDT (22:12 UTC)
- Lifted
- 5:13 PM CDT (22:13 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.3 miles (0.4 km)
- Path width
- 75 yards (69 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 1
- Property damage
- $230,000
- County
- Morgan County
- Touchdown point
- 39.611, -90.042
- Lift-off point
- 39.614, -90.045
- Record number
- 1208311612-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Remnants of Hurricane Isaac tracked northward into Missouri on August 31st, producing showers and and isolated thunderstorms across west-central Illinois. One of the cells produced two brief tornado touch-downs near the town of Franklin in Morgan County. Tree and structural damage occurred on the south side of Franklin and one person was injured when his mobile home was damaged.
A tornado touched down about 0.8 miles south of Franklin at 5:12 PM CDT, then tracked north-northwest before lifting 0.5 miles south of Franklin at 5:13 PM CDT. The tornado destroyed an auto shop and damaged the roof of a house on the south side of Franklin. A mobile home was rolled off its foundation onto Illinois Route 104, injuring one person inside. Several trees were blown down and numerous tree branches were knocked down as well.
A tornado briefly touched down in a field about 3 miles northwest of Franklin at 5:32 PM CDT. No damage occurred.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:53 UTC and running to 02:02 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20:53 UTC | 02:02 UTC | Tornado Watch | ILX |
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, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:58 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
10.2 hours before the tornado, 137 km from the path. August 31, 2012.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 947 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -143 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1049 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 20 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 17 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -60 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- -45 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- -0.3
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 2.7 K/km
Lincoln, IL (KILX), 00:00Z
1.8 hours after it, 137 km from the path. September 1, 2012.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1227 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -5 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 922 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 718 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 28 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 20 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 59 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 52 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.1
- Supercell composite
- 0.6
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.4 K/km
The surface observations
Jacksonville (IJX), 25 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20:35 UTC | 78.26 | 75.56 | 60° 6 kt | 1016.6 | RA | |
| 20:55 UTC | 78 | 75.74 | 60° 4 kt | 1016.3 | RA | |
| 21:15 UTC | 78 | 75.74 | 50° 3 kt | 1015.9 | RA | |
| 21:35 UTC | 78 | 75.74 | 40° 6 kt | 1015.6 | +RA | |
| 21:55 UTC | 77.54 | 75.74 | 30° 7 kt | 1015.2 | +RA | |
| 22:15 UTC | 78 | 75.74 | 40° 6 kt | 1015.6 | RA | |
| 22:35 UTC | 77.54 | 75.56 | 60° 5 kt | 1015.6 | +RA | |
| 22:55 UTC | 77 | 75.2 | 50° 11 kt | 17 | 1015.2 | +RA |
| 23:15 UTC | 76.28 | 74 | 100° 12 kt | 1015.6 | RA | |
| 23:35 UTC | 76.46 | 74.3 | 70° 13 kt | 1015.2 | ||
| 23:55 UTC | 76.46 | 74.48 | 60° 11 kt | 1014.6 | ||
| 00:15 UTC | 76.28 | 74.3 | 50° 10 kt | 1014.2 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Lincoln radar (KILX), 85 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:10 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20:30 UTC | TORNADO | Carrollton | Greene, IL | CITY ROAD COMMISSIONER OBSERVED DEBRIS IN THE AIR NEAR THE CITY CEMETARY... INCLUDING TIN. POSSIBLE TORNADO. |
| 21:21 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 3 Wnw Roodhouse | Greene, IL | |
| 22:13 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Franklin | Morgan, IL | *** 1 INJ *** ONE HOUSE AND ONE METAL BUILDING DAMAGED. POWER LINES ALSO DOWN. ONE MINOR INJURY. |
| 22:32 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Nw Franklin | Morgan, IL | BRIEF TOUCHDOWN IN A CORNFIELD |
| 23:00 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 1.71 | Jacksonville | Morgan, IL | TOTAL RAINFALL SINCE 1230PM. STILL RAINING. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2012 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of August 31, 2012
5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
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.