EF1 tornado, Versailles, Illinois, February 28, 2017

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

February 28, 2017

Touchdown

9:33 PM CST (03:33 UTC)

Lifted

9:34 PM CST (03:34 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.7 miles (1.1 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

County

Brown County

Touchdown point

39.885, -90.664

Lift-off point

39.887, -90.652

Record number

1702282133-01

12 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 110 mph.

• Many large branches blown out of the top of a mature tree.
• Several trees topped or split at the base. One tree was uprooted/snapped at the base but looked fairly rotten.
• Two empty mobile home trailers were rolled. One just on its side and the other (pictured) on its top...with the end coming in contact with neighbors outbuilding crushing the end of the trailer and damaging the shed.
• Large branch (in excess of 12") blown out of tree and fell onto a small house significantly damaging the metal roof by putting a substantial dent in the front half.

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

A severe weather outbreak occurred on February 28th and lasted into the early morning hours of March 1st 2017. Four tornadoes were documented to have occurred in the National Weather Service St. Louis County Warning Area, including a portion of the long track tornado that caused damage north of Perryville, MO. Hail and wind reports were noted with many of the storms.

The tornado first touched down on the far west side of Versailles where it caused minor tree damage. The tornado traveled northeast and impacted a house which sustained roof damage. On the other side of the road, two single wide mobile home trailers were overturned. Damage at this location was rated high end EF1. Farther to the northeast, more substantial tree damage occurred. Several mature trees were topped, split and snapped at various heights above the ground. The surrounding structures sustained corresponding roof, siding and fascia damage. Damage was also rated high end EF1 along this portion of the track. The tornado continued northeast and crossed Illinois Route 99 and caused additional minor tree damage. The tornado moved northeast through the far northeast portion of town causing additional EF0 tree, roof and fascia damage to structures. The tornado dissipated as it moved out of the northeast corner of Versailles. Overall, the tornado was rated EF1 with a path length of 0.66 miles and a maximum path width of 50 yards.

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

10 minutes of warning. NWS LSX issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:23 UTC, 10 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 03:05 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 00:57 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.

Mount Sterling (I63), 17 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Lincoln radar (KILX), 116 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:32 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 2017 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

29 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.