EF0 tornado, Benson, Illinois, September 1, 2012

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

September 1, 2012

Touchdown

11:48 AM CDT (16:48 UTC)

Lifted

11:49 AM CDT (16:49 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.1 miles (0.1 km)

Path width

20 yards (18 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Woodford County

Touchdown point

40.842, -89.087

Lift-off point

40.841, -89.088

Record number

1209011048-01

The remnants of Hurricane Isaac passed through central Illinois on September 1st, triggering widespread showers and thunderstorms. Due to strong low-level wind shear near a surface boundary stretched across north-central Illinois, many of the storms began to rotate and produce funnel clouds. A total of seven tornadoes touched down across portions of Woodford, Marshall, and Stark counties around midday. Most of the tornadoes were short-lived and did little or no damage.

A tornado briefly touched down in a field about 2 miles east-southeast of Benson in Woodford County at 11:48 AM CDT. No damage was reported.

A tornado touched down in a field about 3 miles north of Benson in Woodford County at 12:03 PM CDT. The tornado traveled west across County Road 2200E before dissipating at 12:04 PM CDT. No damage was reported.

A tornado touched down in a field about 4 miles north-northwest of Benson in Woodford County at 12:05 PM CDT. The tornado traveled northwestward and crossed into Marshall County 1.2 miles southeast of Pattonsburg at 12:08 PM CDT. While in Woodford County, the tornado tore the tin roof off a shed and did minor damage to a corn field.

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

0 minutes of warning. NWS ILX issued a tornado warning for this county at 16:48 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 17:30 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:30 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 Lincoln radar (KILX), 80 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 16:47 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 2012 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

14 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.