EF0 tornado, Fults to Ames, Illinois, June 7, 2014

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

June 7, 2014

Touchdown

5:19 PM CDT (22:19 UTC)

Lifted

5:20 PM CDT (22:20 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.3 miles (0.5 km)

Path width

40 yards (37 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Monroe County

Touchdown point

38.166, -90.218

Lift-off point

38.169, -90.213

Record number

1406071619-01

5 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LSX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 80 mph.

• 30 to 40 percent of 2 foot high corn crop snapped off at ground level. Convergent pattern noted
• Side section of old barn destroyed
• One half of large maple tree snapped off and fell on house. Other nearby smaller damaged trees showed circulation pattern

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

An area of low pressure tracked east across northern Missouri. Showers and thunderstorms developed along a trough associated with it during the afternoon and early evening hours. Some of the storms produced weak tornadoes. Five tornadoes occurred in the forecast area.

A tornado touched down on the north end of Fults, just north of Ivy Road, southwest of where the train tracks cross Ivy Road. In this location the corn crop was snapped off. The tornado continued to the northeast snapping off half of a large maple tree. The tree fell onto a house causing moderate damage. Also, several smaller trees in the area were damaged. The tornado then crossed Ivy Road and took off a side section of an old barn before lifting and dissipating on the south side of Bluff Road. The tornado was rated EF0. It was on the ground for a third of a mile with a max path width of 40 yards.

A tornado touched down just north of Lohrberg Drive and broke several large tree limbs. The tornado continued to the northeast and crossed Ames Road. More tree damage occurred on the east side of Ames Road just north of intersection with Lohrberg Drive before lifting and dissipating. The tornado was rated EF0. It was on the ground for a third of a mile with a max path width of 30 yards.

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 22:08 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:38 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:46 UTC and running to 05:00 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 20:04 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.

Sparta (SAR), 45 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), 72 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:19 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 2014 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

10 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.