Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 2018
EF0 tornado, Gossett, Illinois, June 26, 2018
This EF0 tornado ran 0.7 miles across White County on June 26, 2018, touching down at 9:41 AM CDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $20,000 of property damage.
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 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
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
- EF0
- Date
- June 26, 2018
- Touchdown
- 9:41 AM CDT (14:41 UTC)
- Lifted
- 9:42 AM CDT (14:42 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.7 miles (1.1 km)
- Path width
- 100 yards (91 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $20,000
- County
- White County
- Touchdown point
- 37.933, -88.367
- Lift-off point
- 37.932, -88.354
- Record number
- 1806260841-01
The damage survey
19 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS PAH, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 94 mph.
- Unoccuoied mobile home damaged due to fallen trees.
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 large complex of thunderstorms over Missouri gradually evolved into a bowing line of storms as it crossed southern Illinois. Locally damaging winds became increasingly more common as the storms organized into a line. The storms increased in intensity as a result of strong heating and destabilization during the morning hours. This round of storms was followed by another round of severe weather during the late afternoon and evening hours.
The tornado damage occurred mainly on the north side of Sandy Run Lake, which is about four miles southwest of Norris City. Dozens of trees, some large, were uprooted or broken. The tornado occurred in close proximity to a microburst, which produced equally strong winds. Peak winds were estimated near 85 mph in the tornado.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
0 minutes of warning. NWS PAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 14:41 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 15:15 UTC.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 14:27 UTC and running to 15:42 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14:27 UTC | 15:42 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | PAH |
| 14:35 UTC | 15:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PAH |
| 14:41 UTC | 15:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | PAH |
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 13:05 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.
Lincoln, IL (KILX), 12:00Z
2.7 hours before the tornado, 247 km from the path. June 26, 2018.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 149 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -146 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 964 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1013 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 27 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 41 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 313 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 99 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 1.2
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.8 K/km
Lincoln, IL (KILX), 00:00Z
9.3 hours after it, 247 km from the path. June 27, 2018.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 59 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -116 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 262 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 864 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 34 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 26 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 173 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 223 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.3
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.3 K/km
The radar
The Evansville,IN radar (KVWX), 67 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 14:43 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13:25 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | West End | Saline, IL | TREES DOWN IN THE COMMUNITY. |
| 14:25 UTC | TSTM WND GST 55 | Fairfield | Wayne, IL | |
| 14:28 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Creal Springs | Williamson, IL | TREES BLOCKING NORTH LINE STREET IN THE COMMUNITY. |
| 14:28 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Harrisburg | Saline, IL | TREES DOWN IN DIFFERENT AREAS OF THE COMMUNITY. |
| 14:30 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | West End | Franklin, IL | TREES DOWN IN THE COMMUNITY. |
| 14:35 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Omaha | Gallatin, IL | POLE AND LINE DOWN ALONG SECOND STREET. |
| 14:40 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Sw Norris City | Hamilton, IL | A MICROBURST WITH ESTIMATED PEAK WINDS OF 85 MPH BEGAN APPROXIMATELY 4.5 MILES SOUTHWEST OF NORRIS CITY. THE DAMAGE WAS FOCUSED AROUND AND SOUTH OF SANDY RUN LAKE. MANY DOZENS OF TREES WERE UPROOTED OR BROKEN. AT LEAST T |
| 14:41 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Sw Norris City | White, IL | AN EF-0 TORNADO WITH ESTIMATED PEAK WINDS OF 85 MPH OCCURRED APPROXIMATELY 3.8 SOUTHWEST OF NORRIS CITY. THE TORNADO DAMAGE OCCURRED MAINLY ON THE NORTH SIDE OF SANDY RUN LAKE. DOZENS OF TREES, SOME LARGE, WERE UPROOTED |
| 14:45 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Broughton | Hamilton, IL | TREE DOWN. |
| 14:50 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 S Norris City | White, IL | TREES DOWN ALONG HIGHWAY 1 |
| 14:54 UTC | TSTM WND GST 51 | Carmi | White, IL | REPORTED FROM CARMI ILLINOIS AIRPORT. |
| 14:55 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Cave-In-Rock | Hardin, IL | TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN ALONG HIGHWAY 1 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2018 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of June 26, 2018
17 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 26 | 10:42 AM CDT | EF0 | Grant, WI | 0.1 | 10 | |||
| June 26 | 11:30 AM CDT | EF0 | Lafayette, WI | 0.5 | 40 | $1,000 | ||
| June 26 | 1:44 PM EDT | EF1 | Oldham, KY | 3.5 | 150 | $550,000 | ||
| June 26 | 1:09 PM CDT | EF0 | Jackson, MO | 3.4 | 100 | $150,000 | ||
| June 26 | 2:24 PM CDT | EF0 | Lafayette, WI | 1.8 | 47 | $15,000 | ||
| June 26 | 3:26 PM CDT | EF0 | Scotland, MO | 0.2 | 10 | |||
| June 26 | 3:30 PM CDT | EF1 | St. Clair, MO | 2.5 | 200 | |||
| June 26 | 5:28 PM CDT | EF0 | Kane, IL | 0.0 | 20 | |||
| June 26 | 6:39 PM CDT | EF0 | Butler, KS | 1.9 | 100 | |||
| June 26 | 6:42 PM CDT | EF0 | Butler, KS | 0.5 | 50 | |||
| June 26 | 6:53 PM CDT | EF0 | Will, IL | 0.1 | 25 | |||
| June 26 | 6:54 PM CDT | EF1 | Will, IL | 1.1 | 100 | $30,000 | ||
| June 26 | 7:18 PM CDT | EF3 | Greenwood, KS | 9.2 | 500 | 8 | $14 million | |
| June 26 | 8:23 PM CDT | EF0 | Henry, IL | 0.0 | 10 | |||
| June 26 | 8:27 PM CDT | EF1 | Champaign, IL | 3.9 | 75 | $37,000 | ||
| June 26 | 8:53 PM CDT | EF0 | Morton, ND | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| June 26 | 9:02 PM CDT | EF0 | Butler, KS | 0.5 | 50 |
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.