EF2 tornado, Black, Illinois, November 17, 2013

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

November 17, 2013

Touchdown

1:33 PM CST (19:33 UTC)

Lifted

1:38 PM CST (19:38 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

4.1 miles (6.7 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$150,000

County

Edwards County

Touchdown point

38.419, -88.148

Lift-off point

38.436, -88.075

Record number

1311171333-01

31 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS PAH, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 130 mph.

• large branches broken off near the tops of trees.
• tree tops snapped on north side of road.
• resident saw leaves twirling on the ground southwest of residence, went to basement and house was hit immediately. New addition to house ripped off. Garage completely destroyed and two vehicles inside we're turn 180 degrees and totaled. Other vehicle in yard damaged with mainly broken windows. West side of residence had windows broken with front porch destroyed/collapsed. two 110 year old barns completely destroyed. Several 100 year old trees snapped and uprooted. Flag pole thrown and embedded.
• trees snapped and apparent outbuilding demolished.

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

Supercell thunderstorms developed along a pre-frontal low pressure trough over Missouri and then moved east across southern Illinois. Very strong wind fields coupled with moderate amounts of instability resulted in several supercell thunderstorms, some of which produced tornadoes. The storms moved through the warm sector of a low pressure system characterized by mixed-layer capes around 1000 j/kg. Southerly surface winds transported rich low-level moisture north of the Ohio River, with dew points in the mid 60's. Areas of partial sunshine immediately preceding the convection bolstered instability. The low level wind shear was very strong, with 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity at or above 500. Strong southerly surface winds ahead of the storms gusted to around 45 mph from Mount Vernon to Carbondale during the midday hours.

The tornado crossed into Edwards County from Wayne County. Numerous trees were snapped or uprooted. A new addition to a house was destroyed. An attached garage was destroyed, with two vehicles turned 180 degrees. Two 100-year-old barns were totally destroyed. Several 100-year-old trees were snapped or uprooted. Other residences in the area sustained minor damage. The estimated peak winds in this tornado were 130 mph. The maximum intensity was attained just west of Illinois Route 130, almost due north of Albion. A second shorter track EF-2 tornado occurred simultaneously just south of this tornado. Both tornadoes were witnessed on the ground at the same time. This tornado was spawned by the same supercell that produced the EF-2 tornado that tracked from Sims to Fairfield in Wayne County.

This tornado travelled just south of and nearly parallel to another EF-2 tornado. Two machine sheds were destroyed along with a barn. Several trees were snapped. More than one eyewitness saw both tornadoes on the ground at the same time. Peak winds were estimated near 110 mph. This tornado was spawned by the same supercell that produced the EF-2 tornado that tracked from Sims to Fairfield in Wayne County.

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

1 minute of warning. NWS PAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:32 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 16:43 UTC and running to 22:08 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 High Risk, with a 0.30 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. 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.

Fairfield (FWC), 27 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Evansville,IN radar (KVWX), 39 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:35 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

75 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 76 of them

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.