Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 2012

EF0 tornado, Gibson City, Illinois, July 31, 2012

This EF0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Ford County on July 31, 2012, touching down at 1:18 PM CDT and reaching 20 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
July 31, 2012
Touchdown
1:18 PM CDT (18:18 UTC)
Lifted
1:19 PM CDT (18:19 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.0 miles (0.0 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Ford County
Touchdown point
40.441, -88.374
Lift-off point
40.441, -88.373
Record number
1207311218-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Strong to severe thunderstorms moved across parts of northern Illinois producing hail and one brief tornado.

A trained spotter reported that a very brief tornado touched down on the east side of Illinois Route 47 approximately two miles south of Gibson City. 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 severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 18:15 UTC and running to 21:46 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
17:36 UTC18:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLOT
18:15 UTC21:46 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchLOT
19:23 UTC19:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLOT

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:39 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

6.3 hours before the tornado, 38 km from the path. July 31, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2012-07-31Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2241 joules per kilogram, CIN -70, lifted condensation level 958 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, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2012-07-31The 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 19 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 35 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
2241 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-70 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
958 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
19 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
69 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
2.9
0-3 km lapse rate
2.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lincoln, IL (KILX), 00:00Z

5.7 hours after it, 38 km from the path. August 1, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2012-08-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 600 joules per kilogram, CIN -79, lifted condensation level 2168 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, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2012-08-01The 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 16 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 32 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
600 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-79 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1895 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2168 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
16 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
94 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.9
0-3 km lapse rate
7.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Lincoln radar (KILX), 88 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:16 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
15:22 UTCHAIL 0.881 Nnw FithianVermilion, ILPEA TO NICKEL SIZE HAIL
15:23 UTCHAIL 0.253 E OgdenVermilion, ILINTERSECTION OF HIGHWAYS 49 AND 150
15:27 UTCHAIL 1.251 W FithianVermilion, IL
17:35 UTCHAIL 1SibleyFord, IL
17:35 UTCTORNADO2 S Gibson CityFord, ILA VERY BRIEF TOUCHDOWN FROM A ROTATING WALL CLOUD. THIS OCCURRED ON THE EAST SIDE OF ILLINOIS HIGHWAY 47. NO DAMAGE WAS REPORTED.
17:52 UTCHAIL 0.25Gibson CityFord, ILAT 623 E. 1ST ST.
17:52 UTCHAIL 1Gibson CityFord, ILDELAYED REPORT FROM OUTSIDE THE BIG R AT 623 EAST 1ST STREET.
18:18 UTCTORNADO2 S Gibson CityFord, ILA VERY BRIEF TOUCHDOWN FROM A ROTATING WALL CLOUD. THIS OCCURRED ON THE EAST SIDE OF ILLINOIS HIGHWAY 47. NO DAMAGE WAS REPORTED.
19:27 UTCHAIL 0.884 Ssw ElliottFord, ILTIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR.
20:52 UTCHAIL 0.88UrbanaChampaign, ILTWO REPORTS ON NORTHEAST AND EAST SIDES OF URBANA. MOSTLY DIME SIZE. A FEW STONES TO NICKEL SIZE.

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

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.