EF2 tornado, Augsburg to Mason, Illinois, April 3, 2018

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

April 3, 2018

Touchdown

4:20 PM CDT (21:20 UTC)

Lifted

4:41 PM CDT (21:41 UTC)

On the ground

21 minutes

Path length

18.2 miles (29.3 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Fayette and Effingham counties

Touchdown point

38.888, -88.998

Lift-off point

38.978, -88.680

Record number

1804031520-01

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

• Debris in field to west and east.
• Barn completely destroyed. Large tree in the residence. Three silos completely destroyed. Two of them found a mile down the path of the tornado.
• Three electrical poles were snapped at this location also supporting the rating of the tornado at EF2.
• Barn completely destroyed with debris thrown at least a mile down the tornadoes path.

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

A strong cold front moved through the region triggering storms. Some of the storms produced severe weather, mainly large hail and an isolated tornado.

Low pressure tracking across central Illinois triggered a line of fast-moving thunderstorms during the afternoon of April 3rd. The storms primarily impacted locations south of the I-72 corridor, with one cell embedded within the line producing an EF-1 tornado in southern Effingham County. Thunderstorms earlier in the day dropped locally heavy rainfall of 3-5 inches across portions of Coles County, including 3.76 in Charelston. Due to excessive rainfall rates over a short period of time, flash flooding occurred in the Charleston-Mattoon area. Numerous roads were closed due to high water, including IL-16 between Mattoon and Charleston. Several homes had to be evacuated and water rescues took place in a neighborhood on the south side of Mattoon.

A strong tornado developed around 7 miles southeast of Vandalia, Illinois around 4:20 PM CDT and traveled northeast to the Fayette/Effingham County line by 4:34 PM CDT. The first tornado damage observed was near the intersection of E1050 Avenue and N1375 Street where a greenhouse lost portions of its roofing material and suffered other minor damage. The tornado continued northeast toward Gatch Lake causing damage to several outbuildings and one single family residence. The width of the tornado increased to nearly 100 yards wide and the strength increased from EF0 to EF1 during this time period. The tornado continued northeast causing mainly tree damage until it reached a farm along E1200 Avenue near N1780 Lane. Here a barn and several silos were destroyed, along with a single wide mobile home. The damage was rated EF2. Thankfully there were no occupants in the mobile home at the time of the tornado. The tornado continued northeast destroying another outbuilding, with the debris being tossed down wind hundreds of yards into the open field. The greatest tornado damage occurred to a residence near the intersection of Illinois Highway 185 and E1250 Avenue. The tornado destroyed their garage, ripped their roof and southeast walls off of their home. This damage was also rated EF2 with winds estimated to be 125 mph. The tornado began to weaken as it moved northeast only causing minor damage to an outbuilding and downing trees in a narrow path, less than a hundred yards wide, to the Fayette/Effingham county line. No injuries or deaths were reported in Fayette County. The tornado continued northeast into Effingham County (WFO Lincoln's forecast area). This segment of the tornado (Fayette County) was rated EF2 with a path length of 10.87 miles and a max path width of 100 yards. The entire tornado was rated EF2. It's path length was 18.27 miles with a max path width of 100 yards.

A tornado crossed from the National Weather Service St. Louis County Warning Area (CWA) in eastern Fayette County into Effingham County approximately 8 miles west-northwest of Edgewood at 4:34 PM CDT. The tornado destroyed 5 outbuildings, a large grain bin, and a garage about one-half mile east-northeast of where it entered southwest Effingham County. It also damaged the windows of a home and an automobile. As the tornado continued, it damaged three farmsteads... where it damaged or destroyed six additional outbuildings, a camper, an unoccupied trailer, and numerous trees. The tornado dissipated in a forested area about 3.4 miles northwest of Mason at 4:41 PM CDT.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:33 UTC and running to 22:32 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:33 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.

Effingham (1H2), 30 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Evansville,IN radar (KVWX), 122 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:20 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 2018 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

21 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.