Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 2019

EF0 tornado, Saint Clair County, Illinois, June 12, 2019

This EF0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Saint Clair County on June 12, 2019, touching down at 6:14 PM CDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 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.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
June 12, 2019
Touchdown
6:14 PM CDT (23:14 UTC)
Lifted
6:17 PM CDT (23:17 UTC)
On the ground
3 minutes
Path length
0.5 miles (0.9 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
Saint Clair County
Touchdown point
38.477, -90.151
Lift-off point
38.471, -90.145
Record number
1906121714-01

The damage survey

4 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 74 mph.

  • Brief tornado touchdown. Garage door blown in, minor siding damage, window broken.

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

The warnings

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 22:49 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

11.2 hours before the tornado, 229 km from the path. June 12, 2019.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2019-06-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -84632, lifted condensation level 1773 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2019-06-12The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 82 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 29 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-84632 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1773 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
82 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
143 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lincoln, IL (KILX), 00:00Z

0.8 hours after it, 229 km from the path. June 13, 2019.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2019-06-13Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 41 joules per kilogram, CIN -19, lifted condensation level 860 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2019-06-13The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 43 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 12 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
41 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-19 J/kg
Surface CAPE
321 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
860 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
43 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-16 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Cahokia/St Louis (CPS), 11 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:15 UTC260° 5 kt1012.2-RA
21:20 UTC260° 5 kt1011.9-RA
21:25 UTC250° 8 kt1011.9-RA
21:40 UTC260° 5 kt1011.9
21:45 UTC260° 5 kt1011.9
21:50 UTC260° 5 kt1011.9
21:53 UTC6458250° 5 kt1011.9
21:55 UTC270° 5 kt1011.9
22:05 UTC290° 5 kt1011.9-RA
22:10 UTC280° 4 kt1011.9-RA
22:15 UTC250° 5 kt1011.9-RA
22:25 UTC260° 5 kt1011.9-RA
22:30 UTC250° 4 kt1011.9-RA
22:35 UTC250° 4 kt1011.9-RA
22:40 UTC230° 4 kt1011.5-RA
22:50 UTC240° 4 kt1011.5-RA
22:53 UTC6359240° 3 kt1011.5
22:55 UTC230° 2 kt1011.5
23:00 UTC0° 0 kt1011.5
23:05 UTC0° 0 kt1011.5
23:10 UTC0° 0 kt1011.5
23:20 UTC260° 2 kt1011.5
23:25 UTC270° 2 kt1011.2
23:30 UTC250° 2 kt1011.2
23:34 UTC6459250° 3 kt1011.2FC
23:35 UTC0° 0 kt1011.2
23:40 UTC65600° 0 kt1011.2
23:45 UTC270° 2 kt1011.2
23:50 UTC250° 2 kt1011.2
23:53 UTC6560250° 3 kt1011.5
00:05 UTC260° 2 kt1011.5
00:10 UTC260° 2 kt1011.5
00:15 UTC230° 2 kt1011.5
00:18 UTC6460240° 4 kt1011.2VCTS
00:20 UTC230° 4 kt1011.2
00:25 UTC260° 5 kt1011.5
00:30 UTC260° 4 kt1011.5
00:35 UTC260° 5 kt1011.5
00:40 UTC260° 5 kt1011.5
00:45 UTC260° 5 kt1011.5
00:50 UTC260° 5 kt1011.5
00:51 UTC62.659260° 6 kt1011.5TSRA
00:53 UTC6359260° 6 kt1011.9TSRA
00:55 UTC260° 7 kt1011.5RA
01:00 UTC270° 8 kt1011.9RA
01:05 UTC290° 9 kt1011.9RA

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

The radar

The St Louis radar (KLSX), 53 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:16 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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
22:22 UTCTORNADO3 Wnw MillstadtSt. Clair, ILGARAGE DOOR DAMAGED BY POSSIBLE TORNADO. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR. RELAYED BY KSDK.
23:16 UTCTORNADO3 Wnw MillstadtSt. Clair, ILCORRECTS PREVIOUS TORNADO REPORT FROM 3 WNW MILLSTADT. A TORNADO BRIEFLY TOUCHED DOWN. A GARAGE DOOR WAS BLOWN IN, A WINDOW ON AN EXTERIOR DOOR WAS BROKEN AND MINOR SIDING DAMAGE. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR. RELAYED BY EMER
23:35 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD3 E New HandoverMonroe, ILMULTIPLE REPORTS OF A FUNNEL CLOUD.
00:10 UTCFUNNEL CLOUDSmithtonSt. Clair, ILLOOKING TO THE SOUTHEAST.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2019 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

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.