EF0 tornado, Ideal, Illinois, May 19, 2013

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

May 19, 2013

Touchdown

8:02 PM CDT (01:02 UTC)

Path length

0.1 miles (0.2 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Carroll County

Touchdown point

42.000, -89.990

Lift-off point

42.000, -89.990

Record number

1305191902-01

A very unstable airmass on May 19, 2013 led to the development of severe thunderstorms that produced large hail and damaging winds. Temperatures were in the 80s with dewpoints around 70 with a mid level speed maximum rotating around the base of a developing upper low in the Plains states. This increased the deep layer shear during the afternoon and evening hours. Some of the storms produced golf to baseball size hail and 70 to 80 mph winds. A trained spotter reported baseball size hail knocked out sky lights at the Walmart store in northeast Keokuk. Golfball to baseball size hail was reported on the north end of the city, with nickel to quarter size hail on the south end of the city. A downburst produced wind damage in Benton county from the county line 3.5 miles southeast of Blairstown to 2.8 miles southeast of Shellsburg. There was a mile wide swath of near continuous damage to farm outbuildings, tree branches and some power poles. The greatest damage was from 3 miles south of Newhall, where a machine shed and garage were completely destroyed, to about 3 miles northwest of Atkins, where significant damage occurred to outbuildings. The emergency manager in Buchanan county reported a downburst with winds more than 70 mph struck Independence, Iowa. The northwest side of town sustained the most damage with trees down, power poles snapped and signs blown down.

Confirmed tornado heading towards Chadwick.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:27 UTC and running to 01:18 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:01 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.

Savanna (SFY), 11 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Quad Cities radar (KDVN), 65 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:02 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 2013 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

26 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.