EF1 tornado, Woody to Carrollton, Illinois, May 29, 2015

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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF1

Date

May 29, 2015

Touchdown

11:20 PM CDT (04:20 UTC)

Lifted

11:34 PM CDT (04:34 UTC)

On the ground

14 minutes

Path length

4.7 miles (7.5 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Greene County

Touchdown point

39.269, -90.451

Lift-off point

39.320, -90.393

Record number

1505292220-01

22 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LSX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 104 mph.

• empty grain destroyed and blown 1/4 mile ne.
• roof blown off barn. entire barn shifted
• tree trunk snapped. tree was not in good shape.
• small barn/shed destroyed. 2x4s impaled in house across the street across the street

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

As storms moved through the region, an isolated tornado developed southwest of Carrollton, IL and tracked to the northeast, lifting and dissipating northeast of town.

A tornado touched down about four tenths of a mile north of the intersection of County Roads 1000N and 875E, just east of County Road 875E. In this location, it snapped a large tree off and took the roof off of a barn. The barn was shifted on its foundation. Also, an empty grain bin was destroyed and thrown a quarter of a mile to the northeast. It moved to the northeast and after it crossed County Road 950E, it broke off a number of large tree limbs from a stand of trees. As the tornado moved into the west side of Carrollton, it destroyed a small shed with 2x4s from it impaled into the house across the street. Numerous trees were either snapped or uprooted on the west and north sides of town. On 10th Street just south of South Main Street, a manufactured home lost its entire roof. Just a block northeast, a quarter of the roof of a metal Farm Services building was blown off. Also, the southeast corner of the building had the wall blown inward. A resale shop on the northside of Illinois Route 108 lost part of its metal roof. Further northeast, a number of trees were either snapped off or uprooted. Then the tornado crossed U.S. Highway 67 north of intersection with Parkview Drive. More tree damage occurred on County Road 1400N about seven tenths of a mile west of County Road 1250E. The tornado lifted and dissipated just north of County Road 1400N. Overall, the tornado was rated EF1 with top wind speeds of 104 MPH. Max path width was 200 yards and the length was 4.68 miles.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 00:39 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.

St. Charles (SET), 41 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), 70 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:20 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 2015 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

5 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.