EF1 tornado, Manhattan, Illinois, June 26, 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 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

June 26, 2018

Touchdown

6:54 PM CDT (23:54 UTC)

Lifted

6:59 PM CDT (23:59 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

1.1 miles (1.8 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$30,000

County

Will County

Touchdown point

41.410, -87.986

Lift-off point

41.426, -87.989

Record number

1806261754-01

8 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LOT, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 95 mph.

• A small shed was also tossed. Little to no additional damage noted at this location.
• Two medium sized branches down. No other damage noted to nearby homes or aluminum sided buildings.
• One large (10”?) limb snapped.
• Larger than foot diameter section of trunk broken with limbs also snapped. Structures appear okay.

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

Strong to severe thunderstorms moved across parts of northern Illinois during the afternoon of June 26th producing wind damage, flooding and a few tornadoes.

Trained spotters confirmed a brief tornado touch down approximately 3 miles south southeast of Manhattan. No damage was reported.

Damage was first observed at a farm along Bruns Road. Two large trees lost limbs or portions of their trunk and numerous smaller branches were broken. The resident reported seeing a mass of wind and clouds upstream from this location but not a funnel. There was no damage observed in the crops upstream of the location, at least from what could be seen from the ground. There was debris in the field north of the farm, but no other damage was visible until the tornado entered Manhattan near the park. Damage in Manhattan consisted of numerous snapped branches of various sizes and at least two large, over one foot diameter, trunks snapped. Damage in the park was about 100 yards wide. Several buildings in town received just minor damage, but the post office lost a portion of its roof covering and a building next door had broken windows as well as shingle and roof damage. The tornado dissipated near Prairie Street as it exited downtown. No damage was observed in the tree line north of Prairie Street.

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

1 minute of warning. NWS LOT issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:53 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:30 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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:43 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.

The Chicago radar (KLOT), 22 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:53 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.

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

17 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.