Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 2013

EF0 tornado, Bellmont, Illinois, July 1, 2013

This EF0 tornado ran 0.8 miles across Wabash County on July 1, 2013, touching down at 7:41 PM CDT and reaching 50 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 1, 2013
Touchdown
7:41 PM CDT (00:41 UTC)
Lifted
7:42 PM CDT (00:42 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.8 miles (1.3 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Wabash County
Touchdown point
38.396, -87.889
Lift-off point
38.397, -87.903
Record number
1307011841-01

The damage survey

2 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS PAH, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 60 mph.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

What the Weather Service recorded

A few mini-supercells occurred beneath a 500 mb low centered over the Lower Ohio Valley. A surface trough axis extended from central Kentucky southward. A moist low level air mass combined with diurnal heating resulted in scattered thunderstorms. A few of these storms were mini-supercells, including one cell that produced a weak tornado. A larger cluster of showers and thunderstorms remained nearly stationary for several hours, producing locally very heavy rainfall amounts over four inches.

The tornado, just north of Bellmont, primarily impacted a grove of trees south of the Highway 15 and East 500th Road intersection. The tornado moved west, snapping tree branches and lofting them vertically as witnessed by a storm chaser. The storm chaser sent video of the tornado to the National Weather Service for review and confirmation. The storm chaser stated that other fog columns or low-hanging clouds were observed that day, but they did not rotate.

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
15:17 UTC17:15 UTCFlood AdvisoryPAH
23:08 UTC02:26 UTCFlood AdvisoryPAH
02:20 UTC10:00 UTCFlood WarningPAH

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 19:34 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), 00:00Z

0.7 hours before the tornado, 204 km from the path. July 2, 2013.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2013-07-02Temperature 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 -93340, lifted condensation level 2128 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 2013-07-02The 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 11 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 6 knots.1939Sfc1 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
-93340 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2128 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
11 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
67 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lincoln, IL (KILX), 12:00Z

11.3 hours after it, 204 km from the path. July 2, 2013.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2013-07-02Temperature 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 -79563, lifted condensation level 933 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 2013-07-02The 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 -101 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 11 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
-79563 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
933 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-101 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-64 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Mount Carmel (AJG), 28 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
22:55 UTC6864.4350° 9 kt1011.5-VCTSRA
23:15 UTC6864.4360° 7 kt1011.9-TSRA
23:35 UTC6864.4360° 6 kt1011.9-TSRA
23:55 UTC6864.410° 7 kt1012.2-VCTSRA
00:15 UTC6866.220° 5 kt1012.2VCTS
00:35 UTC6866.220° 7 kt1012.2VCTS
01:15 UTC6866.230° 3 kt1012.2-RA
01:35 UTC6866.230° 4 kt1012.5
01:55 UTC6866.230° 6 kt1012.5
02:15 UTC69.866.230° 6 kt1012.5
02:35 UTC69.866.230° 6 kt1012.5

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The radar

The Evansville,IN radar (KVWX), 21 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:39 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
22:35 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD5 W St. FrancisvilleLawrence, IL2 MILES WEST OF SAND BARRENS. RELAYED FROM LAWRENCE CO 911.
23:53 UTCHEAVY RAIN 1.585 Ne LawrencevilleLawrence, ILSINCE MIDNIGHT
23:53 UTCFLOODMount CarmelWabash, ILSTANDING SHALLOW WATER REPORTED OVER SEVERAL COUNTY ROADS. 2 ROADS IN MOUNT CARMEL HAVE STANDING WATER.
02:09 UTCHEAVY RAIN 5Mount ErieWayne, IL5 INCHES OF RAIN SINCE 9 AM THIS MORNING.
03:02 UTCHEAVY RAIN 4.04AlbionEdwards, ILOVER 4 INCHES OF RAINFALL SINCE EARLIER TODAY.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2013 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of July 1, 2013

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 19:17 AM EDTEF0Union, NJ4.850$20,000
July 110:58 AM EDTEF0Western Connecticut Planning Region, CT3.7150
July 11:28 PM EDTEF1Capitol Planning Region, CT2.1200$5.0 million
July 11:45 PM EDTEF0Capitol Planning Region, CT0.950$25,000
July 15:50 PM EDTEF0Pinellas, FL0.120$10,000
July 17:33 PM EDTEF0Prince George's, MD2.375$500

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.