EF1 tornado, Irving to Coalton, Illinois, March 7, 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

March 7, 2017

Touchdown

1:14 AM CST (07:14 UTC)

Lifted

1:19 AM CST (07:19 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

7.2 miles (11.5 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Montgomery County

Touchdown point

39.206, -89.397

Lift-off point

39.262, -89.284

Record number

1703070114-01

31 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 105 mph.

• Grain bin blown 100 yards into a field.
• Grain bin blown 200 yards to the NE
• Chimney blown off halfway up.

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

As a cold front moved across the region, a squall line developed and moved rapidly east across the forecast area. There were numerous reports of damaging winds, large hail and 8 tornadoes.

A tornado formed on east side of Irving and moved northeast. The bulk of the damage was EF0 with downed large tree limbs and partial removal of metal covering of farm outbuildings. A couple of grain bins, empty, were tossed into fields about 100 to 200 yards, on North 16th Avenue, just west of Witt Trail. One home east of Witt had the chimney blown off. A barn at the same location was pushed such that it ended up leaning about 6 inches off center. The tornado lifted and dissipated on Hillside Avenue about a quarter of a mile east of the intersection with East 22nd Road. Overall, the tornado was rated EF1 with a path length of 7.17 miles and a max path width of 100 yards.

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

3 minutes of warning. NWS LSX issued a tornado warning for this county at 07:11 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 07:32 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 06:03 UTC and running to 08:41 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 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.

Litchfield (3LF), 30 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Lincoln radar (KILX), 102 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:13 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

7 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.