EF0 tornado, Portland Corners, Illinois, May 30, 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 30, 2013

Touchdown

5:35 PM CDT (22:35 UTC)

Lifted

5:36 PM CDT (22:36 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.6 miles (0.9 km)

Path width

25 yards (23 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Whiteside County

Touchdown point

41.657, -89.981

Lift-off point

41.661, -89.972

Record number

1305301635-01

A cold front pushing into a very moist and unstable airmass triggered numerous severe thunderstorms on May 30, 2013. Deep layer shear was moderate to strong and freezing levels were in the 11-12k foot level, which was ideal for large hail. The storms produced damaging winds, large hail and several weak tornadoes. An EF1 tornado touched down in Andalusia, IL around 445 pm CDT and traveled due north. This weak tornado crossed the Mississippi River and moved through eastern sections of Buffalo, IA. Wind speeds were estimated to be 95 mph. Some large trees were snapped and uprooted along the path. Some of the fallen trees fell onto houses. In extreme northeast Missouri, wind gusts estimated to be 70 mph produced heavy tree damage throughout Scotland County. Several outbuildings were damaged and about 30 power poles were snapped. The tree damage was mainly located between Bible Grove and Memphis.

An EF0 tornado briefly touched down about 2 miles southwest of Prophetstown, IL around 535 pm CDT. Wind speeds were estimated to be about 70 mph. No damage was reported.

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

3 minutes of warning. NWS DVN issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:32 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:33 UTC and running to 01:00 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 19:50 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 Quad Cities radar (KDVN), 51 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:37 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

28 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.