Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 2015

EF0 tornado, Olney, Illinois, June 19, 2015

This EF0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Richland County on June 19, 2015, touching down at 4:50 PM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $20,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
June 19, 2015
Touchdown
4:50 PM CDT (21:50 UTC)
Lifted
4:53 PM CDT (21:53 UTC)
On the ground
3 minutes
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$20,000
County
Richland County
Touchdown point
38.763, -88.098
Lift-off point
38.770, -88.101
Record number
1506191550-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Rain with a few embedded thunderstorms overspread southeast Illinois on June 19th as the remnants of Tropical Storm Bill tracked into the Ohio River Valley. Due to strong low-level wind shear near the track of the system, many of the storms exhibited rotation. Three tornadoes touched down during the afternoon of the 19th...one in Lawrence County and two in Richland County. The tornadoes were all rated EF0 and caused only minor damage and no injuries.

A tornado briefly touched down 1.4 miles northwest of Olney at 4:45 PM CDT. It caused minor damage to a retail store before dissipating at 4:46 PM CDT.

A tornado touched down 2.3 miles north-northwest of Olney at 4:50 PM CDT. The tornado uprooted a few trees and knocked numerous 6 to 10-inch diameter tree branches down as it tracked northwestward through a mobile home park and a golf course off Route 130. It dissipated 2.8 miles north-northwest of Olney at 4:53 PM CDT.

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

The warnings

5 minutes of warning. NWS ILX issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:45 UTC, 5 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:30 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
10:33 UTC16:30 UTCFlash Flood WarningILX
18:37 UTC23:30 UTCFlash Flood WarningILX
21:45 UTC22:30 UTCTornado WarningILX
22:13 UTC22:32 UTCTornado WarningILX
23:27 UTC14:30 UTCFlood WarningILX

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 forecast that day

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 20:01 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 air that afternoon

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.

Lincoln, IL (KILX), 12:00Z

9.8 hours before the tornado, 160 km from the path. June 19, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2015-06-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -89696, lifted condensation level 938 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2015-06-19The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -42 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 14 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-89696 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
938 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-42 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
1 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lincoln, IL (KILX), 00:00Z

2.2 hours after it, 160 km from the path. June 20, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2015-06-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2 joules per kilogram, CIN -40, lifted condensation level 754 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2015-06-20The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -21 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 19 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
2 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-40 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
754 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-21 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
45 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Evansville,IN radar (KVWX), 65 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:51 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
19:10 UTCHEAVY RAIN 1.634 N LouisvilleClay, ILRAINFALL IN PAST HOUR
19:22 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD5 E LawrencevilleLawrence, ILFUNNEL CLOUD REPORT WEST OF VINCENNES NEAR HIGHWAY 50 AND 33 INTERCHANGE
19:26 UTCTORNADO7 E LawrencevilleLawrence, ILBRIEF TORNADO TOUCHDOWN CAUSED DAMAGE TO TREES AND A CAMPER NEAR THE SUN AND SAND SUBDIVISION 2 MILES WEST OF VINCENNES INDIANA.
21:45 UTCTORNADO2 Nw OlneyRichland, ILBRIEF TOUCHDOWN REPORTED BY COUNTY SHERIFF AND STATE POLICE...MINOR DAMAGE DONE TO RETAIL STORE.
21:50 UTCTORNADO4 Nnw OlneyRichland, ILTREE LIMBS OF 6 TO 10 INCHES IN DIAMATER BLOWN DOWN AND SOME TREES UPROOTED AT A MOBILE HOME PARK AND GOLF COURSE NORTH OF OLNEY OFF ROUTE 130.
23:00 UTCHEAVY RAIN 2.131 E TrimbleCrawford, IL24-HOUR TOTAL

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2015 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 19, 2015

13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 1912:30 PM CDTEF1Marion, IL1.750
June 191:30 PM CDTEF0Graves, KY1.8150$4,000
June 192:26 PM CDTEF0Lawrence, IL0.125$25,000
June 193:13 PM CDTEF0White, IL4.9200$5,000
June 193:40 PM CDTEF0Perry, IN0.350
June 193:57 PM CDTEF1Johnson, IL0.450$5,000
June 194:45 PM CDTEF0Richland, IL0.130$10,000
June 194:51 PM CDTEF1Franklin, IL0.9150$500,000
June 194:53 PM CDTEF1Jackson, IL0.275$25,000
June 195:30 PM CDTEF0Hamilton, IL0.550$2,000
June 196:01 PM CDTEF0Perry, IL0.130
June 195:45 PM MDTEF0Carter, MT1.050
June 198:57 PM MDTEF2Meade, SD19.7100$100,000

What this means

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.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.