Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 2017

EF0 tornado, Princeville to Dunlap, Illinois, July 10, 2017

From Princeville to Dunlap, this EF0 tornado ran 1.6 miles across Peoria County on July 10, 2017, touching down at 5:45 PM CDT and reaching 50 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
July 10, 2017
Touchdown
5:45 PM CDT (22:45 UTC)
Lifted
5:53 PM CDT (22:53 UTC)
On the ground
8 minutes
Path length
1.6 miles (2.6 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Peoria County
Touchdown point
40.886, -89.740
Lift-off point
40.884, -89.709
Record number
1707101645-01

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.

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

A nearly stationary frontal boundary extending from southern Lake Michigan southwestward to the Iowa/Missouri border triggered a round of severe thunderstorms across portions of west-central Illinois during the late afternoon and evening of July 10th. Most of the storms were confined to areas along and west of the I-55 corridor. Due to increasing amounts of low-level wind shear ahead of an approaching disturbance, several of the storms began rotating...with one cell spawning a brief tornado just south of Princeville in Peoria County. Other storms produced 60 to 70mph wind gusts and hail as large as tennis balls in Fairview in Fulton County.

A tornado briefly touched down in a field 3.1 miles SSE of Princeville at 5:45 PM CDT. The tornado tracked ENE and quickly dissipated 2.2 miles NW of Dunlap at 5:53 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

0 minutes of warning. NWS ILX issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:45 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
10:34 UTC11:16 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningILX
10:51 UTC11:18 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningILX
22:31 UTC23:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningILX
22:45 UTC23:15 UTCTornado WarningILX
22:59 UTC04:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchILX
23:01 UTC23:30 UTCTornado WarningILX
23:03 UTC23:19 UTCTornado WarningILX
23:17 UTC00:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningILX
23:42 UTC00:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningILX
23:52 UTC00:15 UTCTornado WarningILX
23:58 UTC00:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningILX
00:12 UTC01:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm 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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:54 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), 12:00Z

10.8 hours before the tornado, 104 km from the path. July 10, 2017.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Davenport, at 12:00Z on 2017-07-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 3 joules per kilogram, CIN -488, lifted condensation level 1825 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km-30°-20°-10°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 2017-07-10The 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 221 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 65 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 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
3 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-488 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1825 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
65 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
221 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
286 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
3.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Davenport, (KDVN), 00:00Z

1.2 hours after it, 104 km from the path. July 11, 2017.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Davenport, at 00:00Z on 2017-07-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2871 joules per kilogram, CIN -20, lifted condensation level 1254 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2017-07-11The 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 33 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 29 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
2871 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-20 J/kg
Surface CAPE
5476 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1254 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
33 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
47 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
0.6
0-3 km lapse rate
6.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Lincoln radar (KILX), 88 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:45 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
22:42 UTCTORNADO2 S PrincevillePeoria, ILBRIEFLY TOUCHED DOWN IN FIELD. LARGE ROTATING WALL CLOUD BECOMING RAIN WRAPPED. CORRECTED TIME.
22:45 UTCFUNNEL CLOUDNw LauraPeoria, IL
23:21 UTCHAIL 1BrimfieldPeoria, IL
23:38 UTCHAIL 13 Se BrimfieldPeoria, IL
23:54 UTCHAIL 1.75Hanna CityPeoria, IL
23:57 UTCTSTM WND GST 70Hanna CityPeoria, IL
00:02 UTCHAIL 14 E Hanna CityPeoria, IL
00:09 UTCHAIL 13 S Hanna CityPeoria, IL
00:15 UTCHAIL 1.55 E London MillsFulton, IL
00:20 UTCHAIL 1.753 N FairviewFulton, ILRELAYED BY EMA
00:20 UTCHAIL 2.5FairviewFulton, ILRELAYED BY EMA. TIME ESTIMATED.
00:22 UTCHEAVY RAIN 1.32Peoria International AiPeoria, ILRAIN FELL IN 25 MINUTES
00:23 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 Ene PekinTazewell, ILTREES UPROOTED. TIME ESTIMATED.
00:23 UTCHAIL 1PekinTazewell, IL
00:27 UTCHAIL 1.752 Wsw FarmingtonFulton, IL
01:00 UTCHEAVY RAIN 2.25MortonTazewell, IL
01:00 UTCHEAVY RAIN 2.6MortonTazewell, ILFELL IN 1.5 HOURS
01:01 UTCTSTM WND DMGSouth PekinTazewell, IL2 FOOT DIAMETER TREE FELL ON CAR
01:30 UTCHEAVY RAIN 1.794 Sse PekinTazewell, ILRAIN FELL IN 2.5 HOURS
01:45 UTCHEAVY RAIN 1.61 N MortonTazewell, ILRAIN FELL IN 30 MINUTES. DELAYED REPORT, RELAYED BY BROADCAST MEDIA.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2017 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of July 10, 2017

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 1012:00 PM MDTUnratedGarfield, UT0.11
July 103:57 PM EDTEF0Beaver, PA3.275$30,000
July 107:35 PM EDTEF0Meigs, OH0.450$15,000
July 107:53 PM EDTEF1Cass, IN3.8200
July 107:58 PM EDTEF1Miami, IN3.0100
July 108:14 PM EDTEF0Mercer, OH6.3150$10,000

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.