EF1 tornado, Lincolnwood to Rogers Park, Illinois, August 10, 2020

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 10, 2020

Touchdown

3:59 PM CDT (20:59 UTC)

Lifted

4:04 PM CDT (21:04 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

3.2 miles (5.1 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Cook County

Touchdown point

42.009, -87.724

Lift-off point

42.017, -87.663

Record number

2008101459-01

53 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LOT, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.

• Montrose Harbor gauge reported 80mph gust.
• metal light post snapped at the base
• 2ft diameter tree snapped near base
• Numerous trees uprooted in Phillip Rogers Park

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

During the late morning through the afternoon of Monday August 10th, a line of intense thunderstorms known as a derecho brought widespread severe wind damage across Iowa, northern Illinois and northern Indiana.||In north central and northeast Illinois alone, the severe winds of 60 to 100 mph downed or damaged tens of thousands of trees, as well as caused severe damage to homes, businesses, and infrastructure. There were 10 injuries reported in north central and northeast Illinois within the NWS Chicago/Romeoville County Warning Area (CWA). Local officials estimated that nearly one million customers lost power across northern Illinois at the height of the derecho and some people were without power for several days. Damage was estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars in north central and northeast Illinois, with several billions of dollars in damages across the entire Corn Belt region including significant damage to crops and agriculture infrastructure. While much of the damage was due to straight line winds, there were also 14 tornadoes documented in north central and northeast Illinois.||The combination of high moisture, explosive instability and very strong atmospheric wind flow for mid-summer had developed quickly over the Corn Belt region on the morning of August 10th. This resulted in a progressive, well-organized complex of storms for hundreds of miles and at times traveling nearly 70 mph. After bringing extensive damage from extreme wind speeds in Iowa that morning, the damage transitioned across northern Illinois from widespread wind damage to narrow, brief and intense swaths associated with compact circulations within the thunderstorm line, some of which were associated with tornadoes.

A tornado with peak winds of 110 mph touched down in the Lincolnwood neighborhood of Chicago near the intersection of Lunt and Hamlin Avenues. Tree damage occurred along most of the path of the tornado. At least two city blocks were impassable due to fallen trees. Numerous cars were totaled after trees fell on them. Utility poles were leaning along Touhy Avenue, just east of St. Louis Avenue. Significant tree damage including snapped trees, large trees uprooted and trees and tree limbs on vehicles, occurred between California Avenue and Rogers Phillip Park. The most intense damage occurred approximately one mile west of Lake Michigan where widespread tree damage occurred including large trees 1 to 2 feet in diameter snapped and uprooted. Minor roof damage also occurred in this area. The tornado continued east to the Lake Michigan shore where it became a waterspout as it moved east of Fargo Beach Park.

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

16 minutes of warning. NWS LOT issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:43 UTC, 16 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:09 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 16:28 UTC and running to 22:23 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:38 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.

Chicago OHare (ORD), 21 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Chicago radar (KLOT), 56 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:57 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 2020 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

26 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.