Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 2016

EF0 tornado, Bradford, Illinois, June 14, 2016

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Stark County on June 14, 2016, touching down at 7:15 PM CDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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 14, 2016
Touchdown
7:15 PM CDT (00:15 UTC)
Lifted
7:16 PM CDT (00:16 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.1 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Stark County
Touchdown point
41.160, -89.710
Lift-off point
41.160, -89.709
Record number
1606141815-01

The damage survey

2 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ILX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 70 mph.

  • Brief touchdown in an open field. No damage.
  • End of brief tornado track.

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

What the Weather Service recorded

Widely scattered thunderstorms developed along a warm front across north-central Illinois during the late afternoon and evening of June 14th. One of the storms produced a weak tornado about 3 miles west-southwest of Bradford in Stark County.

A weak tornado briefly touched down in a field 3 miles west-southwest of Bradford at 7:15 PM CDT. No damage was reported.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:50 UTC00:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningILX
00:15 UTC01:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningILX
00:22 UTC01:00 UTCTornado 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 Marginal Risk. 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 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.

Davenport, (KDVN), 00:00Z

0.3 hours before the tornado, 83 km from the path. June 15, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Davenport, at 00:00Z on 2016-06-15Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2459 joules per kilogram, CIN -15, lifted condensation level 663 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, Davenport, at 00:00Z on 2016-06-15The 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 202 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 39 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
2459 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-15 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2736 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
663 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
39 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
202 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
209 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
2.3
Supercell composite
11.2
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Davenport, (KDVN), 12:00Z

11.7 hours after it, 83 km from the path. June 15, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Davenport, at 12:00Z on 2016-06-15Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 676 joules per kilogram, CIN -131, lifted condensation level 1062 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, Davenport, at 12:00Z on 2016-06-15The 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 95 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 31 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
676 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-131 J/kg
Surface CAPE
551 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1062 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
95 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
89 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
2.2
0-3 km lapse rate
4.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Lacon (C75), 31 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
22:15 UTC83.371.42120° 10 kt141008.1
22:35 UTC82.2272120° 8 kt161007.8
22:55 UTC81.6872.5130° 11 kt201007.1
23:15 UTC79.3472.5110° 9 kt181006.8
23:35 UTC78.871.6130° 10 kt141007.1
23:55 UTC7971.6120° 7 kt151007.1
00:15 UTC78.871130° 8 kt1007.5VCTSRA
00:35 UTC77.5471.78130° 7 kt1007.5-RA
00:55 UTC7769.8140° 15 kt211007.5-RA
01:15 UTC7670.52100° 13 kt161007.1TS
01:35 UTC7672.14110° 10 kt1007.1VCTS
01:55 UTC7672.5120° 7 kt141007.1

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The radar

The Quad Cities radar (KDVN), 88 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:14 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
22:32 UTCFLASH FLOODTampicoWhiteside, ILA ROAD 1 MILE WEST OF TAMPICO WAS CLOSED DUE TO FLOODING. WATER IS NOW BEGINNING TO SUBSIDE. PUBLIC ALSO REPORTED THE CITY PARK FLOODED AND WATER COVERING ROADS THROUGHOUT TOWN AT LEAST SEVERAL INCHES DEEP. THE WASTEWATE
00:15 UTCTORNADO3 Wsw BradfordStark, ILTORNADO BRIEFLY TOUCHED DOWN IN FIELD. NO DAMAGE.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2016 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 14, 2016

13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 141:52 PM CDTEF0Pipestone, MN3.820
June 142:22 PM CDTEF0Dickinson, IA0.425$1,000
June 142:42 PM CDTEF0Day, SD1.710
June 143:14 PM CDTEF0Day, SD2.010
June 143:34 PM CDTEF0Blue Earth, MN0.225
June 144:05 PM CDTEF0Le Sueur, MN2.225
June 144:14 PM CDTEF0Roberts, SD5.415
June 144:28 PM CDTEF0Rice, MN0.325
June 144:33 PM CDTEF0Blue Earth, MN2.120
June 145:10 PM CDTEF0Big Stone, MN0.110
June 145:16 PM CDTEF0Benton, IA0.210
June 145:26 PM CDTEF0Big Stone, MN0.810
June 145:50 PM CDTEF0Traverse, MN0.110

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.