Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 2013
EF0 tornado, Gorman, Illinois, May 28, 2013
This EF0 tornado ran 1.9 miles across Grundy County on May 28, 2013, touching down at 8:18 PM CDT and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5,000 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 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
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
- EF0
- Date
- May 28, 2013
- Touchdown
- 8:18 PM CDT (01:18 UTC)
- Lifted
- 8:20 PM CDT (01:20 UTC)
- On the ground
- 2 minutes
- Path length
- 1.9 miles (3.0 km)
- Path width
- 20 yards (18 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $5,000
- County
- Grundy County
- Touchdown point
- 41.257, -88.385
- Lift-off point
- 41.276, -88.361
- Record number
- 1305281918-01
The damage survey
4 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LOT, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 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
Severe thunderstorms moved across parts of northern Illinois during the evening of May 28th producing strong winds, heavy rain and flash flooding. Additional thunderstorms moved across parts of northern Illinois during the early morning hours of May 29th.
An EF0 tornado touched down northeast of Mazon near Reed Road, west of Higgins Road where a power pole was blown down. The tornado moved northeast and blew down part of a tree on Higgins Road just south of Spring Road. Three more power poles were blown down on Campbell Road. Doors were blown off an outbuilding nearby before the tornado dissipated west of Coal City.
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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 00:58 UTC | 01:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | LOT |
| 01:23 UTC | 01:44 UTC | Tornado Warning | LOT |
| 04:35 UTC | 21:00 UTC | Flood Advisory | LOT |
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 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 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
1.3 hours before the tornado, 126 km from the path. May 29, 2013.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 2706 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -4 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 3154 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 901 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 24 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 31 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 151 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 208 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 1.5
- Supercell composite
- 8.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.3 K/km
Lincoln, IL (KILX), 12:00Z
10.7 hours after it, 126 km from the path. May 29, 2013.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 120 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -268 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 958 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 42 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 26 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 233 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 274 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 1.7
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 3.9 K/km
The radar
The Chicago radar (KLOT), 45 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:16 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:45 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 1.46 | 3 Ne Bolingbrook | Dupage, IL | TOTAL SO FAR WITH 1.40 IN THE PAST 45 MINUTES. |
| 00:55 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Marseilles | La Salle, IL | ROOF OFF MACHINE BUILDING...LARGE BRANCHES DOWN...DEBRIS WRAPPED AROUND TREES |
| 01:09 UTC | TSTM WND GST 50 | 3 S Marseilles | La Salle, IL | ESTIMATED 50 MPH WIND GUSTS. |
| 01:09 UTC | HAIL 0.75 | Naperville | Dupage, IL | |
| 01:18 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Ene Mazon | Grundy, IL | AN EF-0 TORNADO WITH MAXIMUM ESTIMATED WINDS OF 85 MPH TOUCHED DOWN NORTHEAST OF MAZON NEAR REED ROAD AND HIGGINS ROAD...WHERE A POWER POLE WAS BLOWN DOWN. THE TORNADO MOVED NORTHEAST AND BLEW DOWN PART OF A TREE ON HIGG |
| 01:20 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 W Coal City | Grundy, IL | UPROOTED LARGE TREES. SOUTH OF THE IL-113 AND GORMAN RD INTERSECTION. |
| 01:26 UTC | TSTM WND GST 50 | Romeoville | Will, IL | ESTIMATED GUSTS TO 50 MPH WITH SMALL BRANCHES DOWN. |
| 01:40 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 1.1 | 3 N Carbon Hill | Grundy, IL | RAIN FELL IN THE PAST 30 MINUTES. MINOR FLOODING. |
| 01:45 UTC | TSTM WND GST 59 | Manteno | Kankakee, IL | VIA FACEBOOK. |
| 01:55 UTC | FLOOD | 3 E Bolingbrook | Dupage, IL | HIGH STANDING WATER ON INTERSTATE 355 AT BOUGHTON ROAD |
| 02:00 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 1.09 | Yorkville | Kendall, IL | RAINFALL SINCE 7 AM - WITH THE MAJORITY OF IT THIS EVENING. |
| 02:07 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 1.03 | Romeoville | Will, IL | STORM TOTAL 1.03 INCHES AT NWS OFFICE SINCE 7 PM. |
| 02:19 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 0.75 | Tinley Park | Cook, IL | RAINFALL IN 40 MINUTES. |
| 02:33 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 1.35 | Woodridge | Dupage, IL | TOTAL SO FAR. AT 75TH AND LEMONT. SOCIAL MEDIA VIA FACEBOOK. |
| 02:40 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 0.8 | Frankfort | Will, IL | AT HARLEM AND US30. TOTAL SO FAR. |
| 02:44 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Lemont | Cook, IL | BELL RD IN LEMONT. A TREE FELL DAMAGING POWER LINES CAUSING A ROADWAY HAZARD. BELL RD WAS SHUT DOWN IN LEMONT FROM MCCARTHY ST TO 131ST AVE. REPORT RELAYED BY COOK COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY AND EMERGENCY MAN |
| 02:50 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | Lemont | Cook, IL | ROAD CLOSURE DUE TO 6-8 INCHES OF WATER FLOODING MAIN ST AT 4TH AVE. REPORT RELAYED BY COOK COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT. |
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 May 28, 2013
24 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 28 | 3:08 PM CDT | EF0 | Beaver, OK | 0.8 | 25 | |||
| May 28 | 3:29 PM CDT | EF0 | Beaver, OK | 1.8 | 25 | |||
| May 28 | 4:16 PM CDT | EF3 | Nemaha, KS | 4.4 | 900 | |||
| May 28 | 4:20 PM CDT | EF1 | Nemaha, KS | 0.0 | 50 | |||
| May 28 | 3:23 PM MDT | EF0 | Sioux, NE | 6.3 | 75 | |||
| May 28 | 4:45 PM CDT | EF1 | Nemaha, KS | 0.0 | 50 | |||
| May 28 | 4:05 PM MDT | EF0 | Box Butte, NE | 2.2 | 50 | |||
| May 28 | 5:33 PM CDT | EF0 | Ottawa, KS | 0.0 | 25 | |||
| May 28 | 5:45 PM CDT | EF3 | Ottawa, KS | 2.3 | 1,000 | |||
| May 28 | 7:35 PM EDT | EF1 | Erie, PA | 1.7 | 50 | 5 | $75,000 | |
| May 28 | 6:37 PM CDT | EF0 | Barton, KS | 4.2 | 50 | |||
| May 28 | 6:40 PM CDT | EF0 | Rush, KS | 0.6 | 75 | |||
| May 28 | 6:45 PM CDT | EF0 | Deaf Smith, TX | 2.1 | 75 | |||
| May 28 | 7:53 PM EDT | EF1 | Erie, PA | 17.8 | 150 | 2 | $300,000 | |
| May 28 | 6:13 PM MDT | EF1 | Bennett, SD | 0.1 | 20 | 1 | $100,000 | |
| May 28 | 8:47 PM EDT | EF0 | Shiawassee, MI | 0.7 | 60 | $30,000 | ||
| May 28 | 8:52 PM EDT | EF0 | Shiawassee, MI | 0.5 | 100 | $50,000 | ||
| May 28 | 9:01 PM EDT | EF1 | Genesee, MI | 2.3 | 400 | $100,000 | ||
| May 28 | 9:09 PM EDT | EF1 | Shiawassee, MI | 9.9 | 550 | $110,000 | ||
| May 28 | 9:25 PM EDT | EF0 | Warren, PA | 2.8 | 50 | $10,000 | ||
| May 28 | 9:30 PM EDT | EF2 | Genesee, MI | 5.1 | 500 | $225,000 | ||
| May 28 | 9:54 PM EDT | EF2 | Genesee, MI | 4.6 | 300 | $350,000 | ||
| May 28 | 9:58 PM EDT | EF1 | Warren, PA | 4.2 | 100 | $2,000 | ||
| May 28 | 9:06 PM CDT | EF0 | Deaf Smith, TX | 2.1 | 150 |
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.