EF2 tornado, Graymont to Mcdowell, Illinois, June 22, 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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

June 22, 2016

Touchdown

10:06 PM CDT (03:06 UTC)

Lifted

10:24 PM CDT (03:24 UTC)

On the ground

18 minutes

Path length

11.1 miles (17.9 km)

Path width

440 yards (402 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

4

County

Livingston County

Touchdown point

40.918, -88.778

Lift-off point

40.849, -88.586

Record number

1606222106-01

20 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LOT, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 125 mph.

• path width approx 250ft, other damage to farmstead
• From ABC7 aerial imagery. Northern half of barn destroyed.
• 1/4 mi wide 1 mile west of this location road blocked
• ABC7 aerial imagery shows missing pieces of roof, and wall of attic, on west-facing side.

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

The evening of Wednesday, June 22 brought a favorable setup for tornadoes across northern Illinois. There were approximately 3 supercells which brought numerous tornadoes to the NWS Chicago CWA. NWS ground survey data combined with aerial photography, radar and satellite imagery, and detailed reports from trained storm spotters have helped to determine that 15 tornadoes occurred across the NWS Chicago County Warning Area.

The tornado started just under two tenths of a mile north of the intersection of E 2000 N Rd and County Highway 13. As it moved southeast and crossed N 900 E Rd, there were numerous trees snapped and the path width was approximately 250 ft. At a house near E 1900 N Rd, there were other trees snapped. When the tornado crossed E 1800 N Rd, it strengthened to EF-2 and a barn was totally destroyed, and electrical transmission lines were broken. As it moved southeast past the intersection of Rt 116 and Interstate 55, a small retail building had the exterior walls collapsed. At a mobile home park off S. Ladd St, a mobile home was pushed off its foundation and destroyed. Near the intersection of N 1725 E Rd and E 1550 N Rd, the tornado was 1/4 mile in width and there were 3 snapped power poles and a silo in a field. Peak winds were estimated at 125 mph, and max width was 440 yards. (Tornado 13 of 15).

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

24 minutes of warning. NWS LOT issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:42 UTC, 24 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 23:11 UTC and running to 06:00 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 01:01 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 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 Chicago radar (KLOT), 94 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:04 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

19 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.