Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 2019

EF0 tornado, Xenia, Illinois, May 23, 2019

This EF0 tornado ran 0.7 miles across Clay County on May 23, 2019, touching down at 8:15 AM CDT and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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
May 23, 2019
Touchdown
8:15 AM CDT (13:15 UTC)
Lifted
8:16 AM CDT (13:16 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.7 miles (1.2 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Clay County
Touchdown point
38.616, -88.693
Lift-off point
38.618, -88.680
Record number
1905230715-01

The damage survey

2 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ILX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 70 mph.

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

What the Weather Service recorded

A cold front sagging into southeast Illinois triggered showers and thunderstorms south of the I-70 corridor during the morning of May 23rd. One cell produced a brief tornado southwest of Xenia in Clay County, while other storms dropped heavy rainfall and caused localized flash flooding. With 1-2 inches of rain falling in a short period of time, several county roads north of US-50 were flooded in Richland County.

A tornado briefly touched down in an open field about 3.3 miles west-southwest of Xenia at 8:15 AM CDT. No damage was reported.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
09:28 UTC11:28 UTCTornado WatchILX
09:35 UTC10:03 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningILX

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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 12:56 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

1.3 hours before the tornado, 171 km from the path. May 23, 2019.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2019-05-23Temperature 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 -71507, lifted condensation level 1108 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 2019-05-23The 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 145 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 58 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
-71507 J/kg
Surface CAPE
26 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1108 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
58 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
36 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
145 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
203 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lincoln, IL (KILX), 00:00Z

10.7 hours after it, 171 km from the path. May 24, 2019.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2019-05-24Temperature 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 -61973, lifted condensation level 1622 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 00:00Z on 2019-05-24The 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 34 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 41 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
-61973 J/kg
Surface CAPE
5 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1622 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
34 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
41 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

The surface observations

Flora (FOA), 21 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
11:15 UTC7169.80° 0 kt1017.9-RA
11:35 UTC71700° 0 kt1018.3-VCTSRA
11:55 UTC71700° 0 kt1018.3-VCTSDZ
12:15 UTC71.670.70° 0 kt1018.3-VCTSRA
12:35 UTC72.571.80° 0 kt1017.6-TSRA
12:55 UTC74.373240° 6 kt161018.3-TSRA
13:15 UTC74.7730° 0 kt1018.3VCTSRA
13:35 UTC74.3730° 0 kt1018.6TSRA
13:55 UTC75740° 0 kt1018.3
14:15 UTC76.374.70° 0 kt1018.3
14:35 UTC78.375.40° 0 kt1018.6
14:55 UTC79.776210° 8 kt1018.6

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

The radar

The Evansville,IN radar (KVWX), 93 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 13:16 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
11:45 UTCHEAVY RAIN 1.251 Sw NewtonJasper, ILMESONET STATION EW2373 NEWTON.
11:55 UTCHEAVY RAIN 1.21 E HeartvilleEffingham, ILAWOS STATION K1H2 EFFINGHAM COUNTY MEM AP.
12:00 UTCHEAVY RAIN 1.321 E EffinghamEffingham, ILCOCORAHS STATION IL-EF-30 , IL.
12:00 UTCHEAVY RAIN 1.341 Se EffinghamEffingham, ILCO-OP OBSERVER STATION EFMI2 EFFINGHAM.
13:00 UTCHEAVY RAIN 1.124 Ssw AltamontEffingham, ILCOCORAHS STATION IL-EF-29 ALTAMONT 3.8 SSW.
13:00 UTCHEAVY RAIN 1.281 Sw NewtonJasper, ILMESONET STATION EW2373 NEWTON.
13:10 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD2 S OlneyRichland, IL
13:15 UTCFLOODOlneyRichland, ILSOME FLOODED ROADS NORTH OF HIGHWAY 50 IN RICHLAND COUNTY. DITCHES WERE FULL AND OVERLFOWING ALSO OVER SOME ROADS.
13:15 UTCHEAVY RAIN 1.131 E HeartvilleEffingham, ILAWOS STATION K1H2 EFFINGHAM COUNTY MEM AP.
13:15 UTCTORNADO3 Wsw XeniaClay, ILESTIMATED AN EF0 TORNADO WITH 60 MPH WITH A BRIEF TOUCHDOWN LESS THAN A MILE LONG AND NARROW WIDTH DOWNING A FEW TREES AND LARGE LIMBS IN RURAL AREA NEAR ALDER ROAD. CONFIRMED BY EMA SURVEY AND A VIDEO OF THE TORNADO.
13:30 UTCHEAVY RAIN 1.032 Wnw EffinghamEffingham, ILCOCORAHS STATION IL-EF-6 2 WNW EFFINGHAM.
16:15 UTCHEAVY RAIN 1.131 E HeartvilleEffingham, ILAWOS STATION K1H2 EFFINGHAM COUNTY MEM AP.

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

The other tornadoes of May 23, 2019

18 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 231:10 AM CDTEF1Piatt, IL1.3200
May 231:49 AM CDTEF1Laclede, MO11.1440$155,000
May 232:06 AM CDTEF1Vermilion, IL1.6200
May 233:27 PM EDTEF1Howard, MD5.51501
May 235:15 PM EDTEF1Grant, IN0.150
May 235:01 PM CDTEF0Randall, TX0.650
May 235:13 PM CDTEF0Armstrong, TX0.750
May 235:15 PM CDTEF0Randall, TX0.350
May 235:28 PM CDTUnratedTerry, TX0.110
May 236:14 PM CDTEF1Roberts, TX9.150
May 236:59 PM CDTEF2Roberts, TX17.5900
May 237:07 PM CDTEF0Roberts, TX0.020
May 239:14 PM EDTEF0Cambria, PA1.6300$10,000
May 238:26 PM CDTEF3Lipscomb, TX to OK15.71,500$170,000
May 238:43 PM CDTEF0Lipscomb, TX4.575
May 239:32 PM CDTUnratedHarper, OK0.550
May 239:43 PM CDTUnratedHarper, OK0.575
May 2310:42 PM CDTEF1Harper, OK2.0150$20,000

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.