EF0 tornado, Wolf Lake, Illinois, May 31, 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 31, 2018

Touchdown

7:55 PM CDT (00:55 UTC)

Lifted

7:59 PM CDT (00:59 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

1.1 miles (1.8 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$7,000

County

Union County

Touchdown point

37.466, -89.456

Lift-off point

37.476, -89.439

Record number

1805311855-01

23 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS PAH, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 97 mph.

• Roof of barn blown inward on NW side.
• Trees blown down in numerous directions.
• dozens of trees uprooted or snapped

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

Multiple rounds of thunderstorms impacted the region on the last day of May. Damaging winds, large hail, flooding, and a couple tornadoes were observed in this outbreak. The first round of storms moved through southern Illinois, mainly north of Route 13, during the morning hours. Widespread damaging winds were associated with this line of storms. Scattered thunderstorm development then began by mid to late afternoon, with coverage increasing further into the evening hours. The first round of storms left an outflow boundary across southeast Missouri and the lower Ohio Valley, where scattered thunderstorms developed. Surface dewpoints near the boundary were in the lower 70s, which contributed to moderately strong instability. A subtle shortwave trough across the mid Mississippi Valley and lower Missouri Valley provided large-scale ascent for the evening round of storms. Mid-level winds around 50 knots located just ahead of the shortwave helped to create moderate to strong deep-layer wind shear, favorable for a few supercells.

A storm survey team estimated peak winds up to 95 mph occurred with this tornado, which touched down along the Mississippi River levee. The tornado passed near the community of Wolf Lake before dissipating at the edge of the Shawnee National Forest just east of Route 3. A very large equipment barn collapsed, and another barn was destroyed. A one-story house was partially shifted off its foundation. All structural damage was between Route 3 and the Mississippi River levee. The tornado was witnessed by at least one trained spotter and several other individuals. Prior to spawning this tornado, the parent storm produced a tornado near Trail of Tears State Park in Cape Girardeau County, Missouri about ten minutes earlier.

Peak winds were estimated by a National Weather Service survey team near 75 mph. This weak tornado occurred in close proximity to another tornado about a mile north. Several tree limbs were broken. The roof of a barn was blown in on one side. This tornado also occurred near the Mississippi River between Route 3 and the levee. Prior to spawning this tornado, the parent storm produced a tornado near Trail of Tears State Park in Cape Girardeau County, Missouri about ten minutes earlier.

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

11 minutes of warning. NWS PAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:44 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:00 UTC and running to 00:56 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:57 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.

Cape Girardeau (CGI), 29 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Paducah radar (KPAH), 75 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:55 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

7 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.