EF1 tornado, Sharpsburg to Assumption, Illinois, August 12, 2019

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

August 12, 2019

Touchdown

9:08 PM CDT (02:08 UTC)

Lifted

9:21 PM CDT (02:21 UTC)

On the ground

13 minutes

Path length

6.3 miles (10.1 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$75,000

Crop damage

$630,000

County

Christian County

Touchdown point

39.648, -89.338

Lift-off point

39.598, -89.240

Record number

1908122008-01

48 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ILX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 105 mph.

• Semi trailer tipped; corn flattened
• Multiple tree branches broken
• Large tree has several branches broken
• Corn pushed down. Likely due to RFD wind.

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

An approaching warm front triggered numerous clusters of severe thunderstorms across portions of central Illinois during the late afternoon and evening of August 12th. The storms were mainly focused along and just south of the I-72 corridor. Given the large amount of low-level wind shear in the environment near the boundary, many of the cells began rotating. Two tornadoes touched down, impacting northern Christian County into far western Shelby County. Elsewhere around the area, scattered wind damage was reported.

A tornado touched down about 2.7 miles east-southeast of Edinburg at 9:08 PM CDT. The tornado moved southeastward along County Road 1100 East north of County Road 2000 North, flattening an extensive area of corn, stripping half the roof off a machine shed, and snapping several large trees. Further southeast along County Highway 22 north of County Road 1900 North, numerous trees were damaged and two semi trailers were tipped over. Along County Road 1400 East north of 1800 North, a large tree was snapped and the roof of a house was damaged. The tornado dissipated just before reaching State Highway 48 about 4.1 miles northeast of Taylorville at 9:21 PM CDT.

A tornado touched down about 1.2 miles north of Assumption at 9:40 PM CDT. The tornado tracked east-southward, breaking several large tree limbs at a home, which punched a hole in the roof of the home. Along County Road 2650 East, a trailer was overturned and pushed into an outbuilding. The tornado then crossed into Shelby County 1.6 miles northeast of Assumption at 9:43 PM CDT.

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

1 minute of warning. NWS ILX issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:07 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 01:25 UTC and running to 05:29 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 01:01 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 Lincoln radar (KILX), 59 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:07 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 2019 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

4 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.