EF1 tornado, Metropolis, Illinois, July 6, 2016

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

July 6, 2016

Touchdown

1:39 PM CDT (18:39 UTC)

Lifted

1:45 PM CDT (18:45 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

2.8 miles (4.5 km)

Path width

160 yards (146 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

2

Property damage

$350,000

County

Massac County

Touchdown point

37.153, -88.740

Lift-off point

37.162, -88.691

Record number

1607061239-01

27 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS PAH, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 107 mph.

• corn laid over across from Motel. 50 yards wide, 20 ft deep.
• blew part of roof to the north
• Several large trees snapped.
• Tree and minor structural damage to roofs

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

A line of thunderstorms intensified as it approached the Mississippi River and began to bow out toward the east. Numerous damaging wind events occurred in the southern tip of Illinois, along with an isolated tornado. Wind damage was much more isolated to the north. The storms increased in strength ahead of a small-scale 500 mb shortwave over western Missouri. A moderately strong southwest wind flow of moist and very unstable air fueled the storms. Mixed-layer capes around 3000 j/kg fed into the southern end of the line of storms. Precipitable water values were near 2 inches. Earlier in the day, a weakening line of storms moved southward across southern Illinois. This line of storms produced isolated wind damage in Wabash County. The outflow boundary from this early line of storms provided a focus for the eastward-moving line in the afternoon.

A funnel cloud crossed the Ohio River from Kentucky, then touched down on the southwest edge of Metropolis a few blocks from the Ohio River. The most significant damage occurred along a residential street next to the city's elementary school. The school had window and roofing damage. The primary school received more serious structural damage, likely in excess of 100,000 dollars. Nearby homes sustained roof damage, and numerous large trees were uprooted or snapped. Power poles were down. The city fire department responded to six fire calls and three medical calls directly related to the storm. A tree fell on a car, resulting in minor injuries to the driver. On the east edge of Metropolis, the tornado ripped the roof off of a maintenance shed. The tornado moved through Fort Massac State Park and exited the park on U.S. Highway 45 just west of Interstate 24. A motel just west of the interstate sustained minor to moderate roof damage. The path ended near the intersection of Highway 45 and I-24. A photograph was taken of the funnel cloud over Metropolis, but the bottom part of the funnel was behind trees and buildings. Widespread power outages lasted for at least 12 hours. Peak winds were estimated near 105 mph.

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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 15:48 UTC and running to 19:52 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 17:18 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.

The Paducah radar (KPAH), 11 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:39 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 2016 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.