EF2 tornado, Sims to Golden Gate, 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

1:08 PM CST (19:08 UTC)

Lifted

1:20 PM CST (19:20 UTC)

On the ground

12 minutes

Path length

9.5 miles (15.3 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$150,000

County

Wayne County

Touchdown point

38.370, -88.530

Lift-off point

38.390, -88.357

Record number

1311171308-01

30 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 134 mph.

• Brief Touchdown. Mainly tree damage.
• shingles off roof. Large trees snapped
• two machine tool sheds destroyed. one old barn with a hip roof destroyed.
• trees snapped on both sides of road.

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.

This tornado touched down on the southwest side of Sims. It quickly intensified and destroyed a double wide mobile home on the northeast side of Sims. The tornado continued northeast and crossed Highway 15, producing tree and power pole damage. The tornado moved east across the Wayne County landfill, damaging the building on the grounds. The tornado continued into the north side of Fairfield, producing mainly minor damage to homes. Peak winds in this tornado were estimated near 135 mph. The maximum intensity was on the northeast side of Sims.

This tornado began in extreme eastern Wayne County about one mile from the Edwards County line. The peak intensity rating in Wayne County was EF-1, but the tornado strengthened to EF-2 in Edwards County. In Wayne County, damage was mainly to trees, many of which were snapped or uprooted. The tornado moved into Edwards County. 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.

10 minutes of warning. NWS PAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:58 UTC, 10 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 16:43 UTC and running to 21:36 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), 3 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), 64 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:06 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.