EF4 New Minden tornado, 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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF4

Date

November 17, 2013

Touchdown

12:04 PM CST (18:04 UTC)

Lifted

12:13 PM CST (18:13 UTC)

On the ground

9 minutes

Path length

10.6 miles (17.0 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

2

Injuries

2

County

Washington County

Touchdown point

38.420, -89.450

Lift-off point

38.480, -89.270

Record number

1311171204-01

31 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LSX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF4. The highest wind the damage implies is 180 mph.

• shingles blown off. windows brooken. sun room destroyed, garage destroyed. Man suffered minor cuts on his legs.
• vehicle overturned and rolled
• garage roof lifted off. partial roof of house removed
• barn destroyed. old Winnebage RV destroyed.

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

Strong cold front moved through the region with plenty of lift, moisture and instability. Numerous severe storms developed and raced east across forecast area. There were numerous reports of large hail, damaging winds and tornadoes. Also, because of a tight gradient with this system non-thunderstorm winds gusted in excess of 40 mph in a number of locations.

A tornado touchdown on Interstate 64, about 4.4 miles southwest of New Minden, blowing a tractor trailer off the interstate and causing minor injuries to the driver. The tornado then began moving northeast towards New Minden. The worst damage was about 2 miles west southwest of New Minden, where a small farm sustained a direct hit. The outbuildings and barns sustained varying degrees of damage, but the homestead was totally destroyed with only the foundation remaining. The damage at the homestead was rated EF4, and two fatalities occurred at this location. Also, a large full size van was rolled over. Less than a quarter of a mile east of the house, a single wide mobile home was destroyed. There were 4 people at this location, three of them sought shelter in the creek bed just east of the mobile home while one went back to mobile home to retrieve something. This person rode out the tornado in the bathtub, but was thrown about 50 feet into a field. One of his ankles was broken. He was treated and released from a local hospital. The tornado then continued to race northeast, hitting the far north side of New Minden north of Illinois Route 177, and producing significant damage to St. Johns Lutheran Church and to several homes just northwest of the church. Damage to two of the homes was rated EF3. The tornado continued northeast, producing sporadic damage to just north of Hoyleton. A farm 2 miles west-northwest of Hoyleton sustained significant damage, as did a newly constructed home 2 miles north of Hoyleton. Damage at these two locations were rated EF2. The tornado then veered a bit northwest and dissipated. Overall, the entire tornado path length was 10.59 miles with a max path width of 200 yards. The tornado was rated EF4 with max wind speeds of at least 166 MPH. There were two fatalities and 2 minor injuries.

The deaths

2 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

11 minutes of warning. NWS LSX issued a tornado warning for this county at 17:53 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 14:40 UTC and running to 19:03 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 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.

Centralia (ENL), 24 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The St Louis radar (KLSX), 118 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:04 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.