Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 2017
EF1 tornado, Newton Corners, Illinois, March 6, 2017
This EF1 tornado ran 1.5 miles across Whiteside County on March 6, 2017, touching down at 10:53 PM CST 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.
EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- EF1
- Date
- March 6, 2017
- Touchdown
- 10:53 PM CST (04:53 UTC)
- Lifted
- 11:01 PM CST (05:01 UTC)
- On the ground
- 8 minutes
- Path length
- 1.5 miles (2.5 km)
- Path width
- 10 yards (9 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Whiteside County
- Touchdown point
- 41.717, -90.136
- Lift-off point
- 41.729, -90.111
- Record number
- 1703062253-01
The damage survey
10 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS DVN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 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 line of severe storms tracked east over eastern Iowa, northwest Illinois, and northeast Missouri during the evening of March 6th. Widespread winds over 70 mph, small hail, and several tornadoes were reported. Damage from these storms included: downed trees, power poles, destroyed outbuildings, and roof damage to several homes.
Damage was mainly to snapped trees and a farm outbuilding lost its roof and its walls fell in.
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.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 02:55 UTC and running to 05:53 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 02:55 UTC | 05:53 UTC | Tornado Watch | DVN |
| 04:26 UTC | 05:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DVN |
| 04:39 UTC | 05:27 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DVN |
| 04:56 UTC | 05:23 UTC | Tornado Warning | DVN |
| 05:13 UTC | 06:01 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DVN |
| 17:00 UTC | 00:00 UTC | Red Flag Warning | DVN |
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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:54 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), 00:00Z
4.9 hours before the tornado, 33 km from the path. March 7, 2017.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 39 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -343 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 56 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1016 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 53 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 40 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 407 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 489 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.5 K/km
Davenport, (KDVN), 12:00Z
7.1 hours after it, 33 km from the path. March 7, 2017.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -99659 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1321 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 108 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 23 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -164 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- -86 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.8 K/km
The surface observations
Clinton (CWI), 21 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 02:55 UTC | 190° 24 kt | 997.3 | -RA | |||
| 02:56 UTC | 63 | 57 | 190° 27 kt | 33 | 997.3 | -RA |
| 03:00 UTC | 190° 24 kt | 36 | 997.6 | -RA | ||
| 03:10 UTC | 997.3 | -RA | ||||
| 03:15 UTC | 997.3 | -RA | ||||
| 03:20 UTC | 997.3 | -RA | ||||
| 03:25 UTC | 31 | 997.3 | -RA | |||
| 03:30 UTC | 997.3 | -RA | ||||
| 03:40 UTC | 997.3 | -RA | ||||
| 03:45 UTC | 997 | -RA | ||||
| 03:56 UTC | 65 | 57 | 180° 31 kt | 38 | 997 | -RA |
| 04:00 UTC | 190° 24 kt | 29 | 997 | -RA | ||
| 04:05 UTC | 997 | -RA | ||||
| 04:10 UTC | 997 | -RA | ||||
| 04:15 UTC | 997 | -RA | ||||
| 04:20 UTC | 996.6 | -RA | ||||
| 04:25 UTC | 996.6 | -RA | ||||
| 04:30 UTC | 996.6 | -RA | ||||
| 04:35 UTC | 995.9 | -RA | ||||
| 04:40 UTC | 996.6 | -RA | ||||
| 04:45 UTC | 43 | 998 | +RA | |||
| 04:50 UTC | 230° 32 kt | 997.6 | RA BR | |||
| 04:56 UTC | 59 | 55 | 230° 29 kt | 47 | 998 | -TSRA BR |
| 05:00 UTC | 34 | 998.3 | -RA | |||
| 05:05 UTC | 36 | 998.3 | -RA | |||
| 05:10 UTC | 998.3 | RA | ||||
| 05:15 UTC | 210° 20 kt | 997.6 | RA | |||
| 05:20 UTC | 210° 20 kt | 997.3 | RA | |||
| 05:25 UTC | 210° 18 kt | 997.3 | RA | |||
| 05:30 UTC | 200° 16 kt | 997 | RA | |||
| 05:35 UTC | 190° 19 kt | 997.6 | -RA | |||
| 05:40 UTC | 190° 18 kt | 998 | RA | |||
| 05:42 UTC | 53.6 | 53.6 | 190° 19 kt | 998 | TSRA | |
| 05:45 UTC | 190° 16 kt | 998 | RA | |||
| 05:50 UTC | 200° 15 kt | 997.6 | RA | |||
| 05:55 UTC | 999 | -RA | ||||
| 05:56 UTC | 54 | 52 | 210° 19 kt | 25 | 998.6 | -TSRA |
| 06:00 UTC | 998 | -RA | ||||
| 06:05 UTC | 240° 16 kt | 997.3 | -RA | |||
| 06:10 UTC | 998.6 | -RA | ||||
| 06:13 UTC | 55.4 | 51.8 | 240° 23 kt | 32 | 999 | VCTS -RA |
| 06:15 UTC | 999 | -RA | ||||
| 06:20 UTC | 240° 21 kt | 999.3 | ||||
| 06:23 UTC | 53.6 | 51.8 | 240° 19 kt | 999.3 | ||
| 06:30 UTC | 999.3 | |||||
| 06:35 UTC | 240° 20 kt | 999.3 | ||||
| 06:40 UTC | 999.3 | |||||
| 06:45 UTC | 250° 21 kt | 999.7 | ||||
| 06:50 UTC | 250° 22 kt | 1000 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Quad Cities radar (KDVN), 40 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:53 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 04:36 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Rock Island | Rock Island, IL | TIME ESTIMATED - LOTS OF SMALL BRANCHES DOWN AND GUTTER TORN OFF A HOME. |
| 04:36 UTC | TSTM WND GST 58 | Moline Quad-City Airpor | Rock Island, IL | |
| 04:46 UTC | TSTM WND GST 55 | Rapids City | Rock Island, IL | |
| 05:15 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Mount Carroll | Carroll, IL | TIME ESTIMATED - LARGE TREE UPROOTED BY THUNDERSTORM WINDS |
| 05:17 UTC | HAIL 0.25 | Milledgeville | Carroll, IL | |
| 05:20 UTC | TSTM WND GST 60 | Whiteside County Airpor | Whiteside, IL | DELAYED REPORT. FROM AWOS. |
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 March 6, 2017
53 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 6 | 5:04 PM CST | EF1 | Faribault, MN | 9.3 | 200 | |||
| March 6 | 5:23 PM CST | EF0 | Webster, IA | 2.4 | 30 | |||
| March 6 | 5:28 PM CST | EF1 | Webster, IA | 2.9 | 50 | $70,000 | ||
| March 6 | 5:35 PM CST | EF0 | Geary, KS | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| March 6 | 5:36 PM CST | EF0 | Wabaunsee, KS | 16.1 | 50 | |||
| March 6 | 5:37 PM CST | EF0 | Pottawatomie, KS | 0.0 | 25 | |||
| March 6 | 5:37 PM CST | EF0 | Wabaunsee, KS | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| March 6 | 5:38 PM CST | EF1 | Freeborn, MN | 11.9 | 300 | |||
| March 6 | 5:39 PM CST | EF1 | Sherburne, MN | 8.8 | 300 | |||
| March 6 | 5:59 PM CST | EF0 | Wabaunsee, KS | 1.9 | 50 | |||
| March 6 | 6:13 PM CST | EF0 | Shawnee, KS | 5.2 | 50 | |||
| March 6 | 6:27 PM CST | EF0 | Boone, IA | 17.9 | 85 | $125,000 | ||
| March 6 | 6:30 PM CST | EF0 | Nodaway, MO | 5.8 | 25 | |||
| March 6 | 6:58 PM CST | EF1 | Hardin, IA | 6.3 | 300 | $25,000 | ||
| March 6 | 7:05 PM CST | EF0 | Butler, KS | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| March 6 | 7:19 PM CST | EF1 | Warren, IA | 4.8 | 100 | $80,000 | ||
| March 6 | 7:24 PM CST | EF2 | Clay, MO | 19.6 | 1,000 | |||
| March 6 | 7:29 PM CST | EF1 | Marion, IA | 5.3 | 120 | $50,000 | ||
| March 6 | 7:35 PM CST | EF1 | Marion, IA | 6.8 | 80 | $20,000 | ||
| March 6 | 7:38 PM CST | EF1 | Franklin, KS | 3.0 | 50 | |||
| March 6 | 7:40 PM CST | EF1 | Mercer, MO | 10.3 | 100 | |||
| March 6 | 7:47 PM CST | EF0 | Marion, IA | 5.5 | 65 | $25,000 | ||
| March 6 | 7:51 PM CST | EF0 | Johnson, KS | 0.3 | 100 | |||
| March 6 | 8:03 PM CST | EF0 | Jackson, MO | 2.3 | 25 | |||
| March 6 | 8:11 PM CST | EF3 | Jackson, MO | 17.7 | 400 | 12 | ||
| March 6 | 8:16 PM CST | EF2 | Wayne, IA | 14.9 | 250 | $2.0 million | ||
| March 6 | 8:30 PM CST | EF1 | Appanoose, IA | 8.0 | 60 | $40,000 | ||
| March 6 | 8:33 PM CST | EF2 | Appanoose, IA | 9.7 | 90 | $750,000 | ||
| March 6 | 8:34 PM CST | EF1 | Lafayette, MO | 1.8 | 50 | |||
| March 6 | 8:40 PM CST | EF0 | Carroll, MO | 6.0 | 100 | |||
| March 6 | 8:46 PM CST | EF1 | La Crosse, WI | 2.6 | 200 | $290,000 | ||
| March 6 | 8:56 PM CST | EF1 | Chariton, MO | 19.8 | 100 | |||
| March 6 | 9:10 PM CST | EF0 | Pettis, MO | 3.9 | 25 | |||
| March 6 | 9:17 PM CST | EF0 | Henry, MO | 7.8 | 25 | |||
| March 6 | 9:40 PM CST | EF0 | Cooper, MO | 17.4 | 400 | |||
| March 6 | 9:40 PM CST | EF1 | Shelby, MO | 18.5 | 150 | 1 | ||
| March 6 | 9:44 PM CST | EF1 | Adair, OK | 6.1 | 650 | $100,000 | ||
| March 6 | 9:50 PM CST | EF0 | Dubuque, IA | 5.7 | 25 | $5,000 | ||
| March 6 | 9:56 PM CST | EF2 | Louisa, IA | 0.3 | 150 | |||
| March 6 | 10:00 PM CST | EF1 | Hickory, MO | 0.8 | 100 | $5,000 | ||
| March 6 | 10:05 PM CST | EF2 | Muscatine, IA | 1.8 | 200 | 3 | $100,000 | |
| March 6 | 10:13 PM CST | EF2 | Muscatine, IA | 25.3 | 1,000 | $52,000 | ||
| March 6 | 10:18 PM CST | EF1 | Cedar, IA | 16.6 | 100 | $110,000 | ||
| March 6 | 10:19 PM CST | EF2 | Scott, IA | 34.7 | 200 | |||
| March 6 | 10:24 PM CST | EF1 | Camden, MO | 2.0 | 400 | 1 | $100,000 | |
| March 6 | 10:36 PM CST | EF0 | Morgan, MO | 0.3 | 50 | $100,000 | ||
| March 6 | 10:40 PM CST | EF0 | Clinton, IA | 4.4 | 50 | |||
| March 6 | 10:51 PM CST | EF1 | Washington, AR | 6.4 | 400 | $40,000 | ||
| March 6 | 11:03 PM CST | EF1 | Osage, MO | 7.3 | 75 | |||
| March 6 | 11:17 PM CST | EF1 | Montgomery, MO | 20.9 | 150 | |||
| March 6 | 11:38 PM CST | EF2 | Newton, AR | 36.6 | 700 | 1 | $400,000 | |
| March 6 | 11:51 PM CST | EF1 | Saint Charles, MO | 3.1 | 100 | 3 | ||
| March 6 | 11:52 PM CST | EF1 | Mason, IL | 6.8 | 150 | $150,000 |
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.