EF2 tornado, Pittsburg to Raleigh, 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

5:47 PM CDT (22:47 UTC)

Lifted

6:07 PM CDT (23:07 UTC)

On the ground

20 minutes

Path length

12.3 miles (19.9 km)

Path width

350 yards (320 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$507,000

Counties

Saline and Williamson counties

Touchdown point

37.807, -88.735

Lift-off point

37.847, -88.514

Record number

1804031647-01

78 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS PAH, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 127 mph.

• entire roof structure removed
• Newer model mobile home was tied down
• grain bin blown about 1/2 mile to home
• Stick built house with 2X6 inch exterior walls and bolted bottom plate completely deroof; and a portion of the exterior walls collapsed.

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

An outbreak of severe thunderstorms occurred during the afternoon and evening. Several tornadoes were spawned along a line of fast-moving thunderstorms. Four of the tornadoes were associated with a persistent circulation that moved east across Williamson and Saline Counties, passing just north of Marion and Harrisburg. The circulation exited southern Illinois along the Wabash River southeast of Carmi. A fifth tornado was associated with a circulation that tracked east across Massac and Pope Counties in the southern tip of the state. The severe storm outbreak occurred ahead of a cold front that accelerated east-southeast toward the mid Mississippi Valley. Cooling aloft ahead of a shortwave trough over the Plains, combined with diurnal heating and moist southerly winds, resulted in a corridor of deepening convection ahead of the front. Steep mid-level lapse rates and strong effective wind shear promoted some large hail within the strongest storms.

At least a half dozen homes lost shingles. Windows were blown out of one home. A couple of barns lost parts of their roofs. A fence was blown over. There were dozens of trees with broken limbs or snapped trunks. Peak winds were estimated near 95 mph.

The tornado touched down a few miles east of Corinth, where numerous trees were snapped or uprooted. Some shingles were blown off a well-built house. The tornado gained intensity in Saline County, where it attained its peak EF-2 rating. The tornado was on the ground in Williamson County for only a few minutes before moving into Saline County.

The tornado entered Saline County from Williamson County. In Saline County, three homes were destroyed. The peak intensity occurred between the Williamson County line and Galatia, where a single-wide mobile home was completely demolished. A well-built house was completely unroofed, and portions of the exterior walls collapsed. Peak winds were estimated near 125 mph at this location. Over a dozen other homes were damaged, with at least partial loss of shingles and siding. A couple dozen barns and pole barns were destroyed or heavily damaged. Hundreds of trees were snapped or uprooted.

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

22 minutes of warning. NWS PAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:25 UTC, 22 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:38 UTC and running to 00:00 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 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.

Harrisburg (HSB), 7 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Paducah radar (KPAH), 85 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.

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.