EF0 tornado, Hillview to Beecreek, Illinois, May 15, 2018

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   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 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

EF0

Date

May 15, 2018

Touchdown

6:21 PM CDT (23:21 UTC)

Lifted

6:23 PM CDT (23:23 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.9 miles (1.4 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Greene and Pike counties

Touchdown point

39.419, -90.603

Lift-off point

39.415, -90.618

Record number

1805151721-01

2 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LSX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 60 mph.

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

As a weak cold front moved southeast across the forecast area, showers and thunderstorms developed. One of the storms produced a landspout tornado.

A landspout tornado developed on the intersection of two outflow boundaries in extreme western Greene County Illinois, approximately 3 miles south southeast of Pearl, Illinois. The weak landspout tornado was very visible and numerous photos and videos were taken as it slowly moved west-southwest across the Illinois River into Pike County, Illinois. Based on the photographs and videos provided to the NWS, the tornado appeared to be no more than 50 yard wide and on the ground for roughly one mile crossing open farm fields and diminishing as a waterspout on the Illinois River. The landspout was rated EF0 in Greene County with a path length of 0.69 miles and max path width of 50 yards.

A landspout tornado developed on the intersection of two outflow boundaries in extreme western Greene County Illinois, approximately 3 miles south southeast of Pearl, Illinois. The weak landspout tornado was very visible and numerous photos and videos were taken as it slowly moved west-southwest across the Illinois River into Pike County, Illinois. Based on the photographs and videos provided to the NWS, the tornado appeared to be no more than 50 yard wide and on the ground for roughly one mile crossing open farm fields and diminishing as a waterspout on the Illinois River. The landspout was rated EF0 in Pike County with a path length of 0.17 miles and max path width of 50 yards. Overall the landspout was rated EF0 with a path length of 0.86 miles and a max path width of 50 yards.

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.

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:59 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.

Pittsfield (PPQ), 29 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The St Louis radar (KLSX), 80 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:21 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

11 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.