Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 2020
EF0 tornado, Walshville, Illinois, July 15, 2020
This EF0 tornado ran 3.2 miles across Montgomery County on July 15, 2020, touching down at 4:58 PM CDT and reaching 75 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.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- July 15, 2020
- Touchdown
- 4:58 PM CDT (21:58 UTC)
- Lifted
- 5:02 PM CDT (22:02 UTC)
- On the ground
- 4 minutes
- Path length
- 3.2 miles (5.2 km)
- Path width
- 75 yards (69 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Montgomery County
- Touchdown point
- 39.034, -89.690
- Lift-off point
- 39.077, -89.667
- Record number
- 2007151558-01
The damage survey
15 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 85 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 strong cold front moved through the region triggering showers and storms. Some of the storms produced damaging winds and a couple of tornadoes.
A combination of a ground survey and satellite data shows an intermittent tornado path. The tornado touched down just south of Prange Avenue. It snapped and uprooted some trees near a residence on Prange Avenue. Satellite data shows the tornado continued northeast through cornfields, damaging more trees near Sewing and Mt. Olive Trails. Satellite data shows the tornado continued northeast, before lifting just west of Niemanville Trail. The tornado was rated as EF0 with a path length of 3.2 miles and max path width of 75 yards.
A combination of a ground survey and satellite data suggests a brief, weak tornado touched down northeast of Walshville, IL. The tornado first touched down in a corn field west of Durbin Road. The tornado then continued northeast, mainly causing tree damage, though some minor structural damage to a house west of Durbin Road also occurred. The tornado quickly lifted as it approached Durbin Road. The tornado was rated as EF0 with a path length of 0.57 miles and max path width of 50 yards.
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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:12 UTC and running to 02:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19:12 UTC | 02:00 UTC | Tornado Watch | LSX |
| 21:38 UTC | 21:54 UTC | Tornado Warning | LSX |
| 21:48 UTC | 22:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | LSX |
| 22:02 UTC | 22:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | LSX |
| 22:30 UTC | 22:43 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | LSX |
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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:52 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
10.0 hours before the tornado, 153 km from the path. July 15, 2020.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -72859 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1529 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 20 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 15 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 30 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 32 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 3.7 K/km
The radar
The St Louis radar (KLSX), 96 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:57 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.
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21:25 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Nw Alton | Madison, IL | SEVERAL TREES DOWN WEST OF THE BEND OF HIGHWAY 67. TREES WERE REPORTED TO BE OVER NEIGHBORHOOD ROADS. A HOME SUFFERED A PARTIALLY REMOVED ROOF AND FENCE LINE BLOWN OVER NEAR GLOVER AND ELM STREET. ONE VEHICLE SUFFERED DA |
| 21:34 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Wood River | Madison, IL | MULTIPLE REPORTS OF DOWNED TREE LIMBS UP TO 6 INCHES IN DIAMETER IN ROXANA, WOOD RIVER, AND ALTON. LIMBS IN WOOD RIVER DAMAGED TWO CARS. |
| 21:35 UTC | TSTM WND GST 66 | Granite City | Madison, IL | |
| 21:40 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Nnw Edwardsville | Madison, IL | LARGE TREE LIMBS DOWN ON TERRY ST. MAKING ROAD IMPASSABLE. |
| 21:40 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 W Edwardsville | Madison, IL | MULTIPLE 5-6 INCH TREE LIMBS DOWN AND SOME OVER THE ROADS WITHIN THE SIUE CAMPUS. |
| 21:47 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Ese Palmyra | Macoupin, IL | TWO SPOTTERS REPORTED A TORNADO BRIEFLY TOUCHED DOWN IN A FIELD VERIFIED WITH A PICTURE. THIS TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN NORTHEAST OF HETTICK, IL, SOUTHWEST OF OTTER CREEK. THE TORNADO WAS VERY SHORT LIVED AND DID NOT DAMAGE A |
| 21:58 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Se Mount Olive | Montgomery, IL | A COMBINATION OF A GROUND SURVEY AND SATELLITE DATA SHOWS AN INTERMITTENT, 3.2 MILE TORNADO PATH THAT BEGAN JUST SOUTH OF PRANGE AVENUE. IT SNAPPED AND UPROOTED SOME TREES NEAR A RESIDENCE NORTH OF PRANGE AVENUE. SATELLI |
| 22:03 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Walshville | Montgomery, IL | LARGE TREE DOWN IN THE TOWN OF WALSHVILLE, IL. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR. |
| 22:05 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Nne Walshville | Montgomery, IL | A COMBINATION OF A GROUND SURVEY AND SATELLITE DATA SUGGESTS A BRIEF, WEAK TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN NORTHEAST OF WALSHVILLE, IL. THE TORNADO FIRST TOUCHED DOWN IN A CORN FIELD WEST OF DURBIN ROAD. THE TORNADO THEN CONTINUED |
| 22:10 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 S Reno | Bond, IL | COUNTY DISPATCH REPORTS TREE OVER TERRAPIN RIDGE DRIVE. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR. |
| 22:15 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Sse Butler | Montgomery, IL | LARGE TREE DOWN SOUTH OF BUTLER. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR. |
| 22:15 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Sw Hillsboro | Montgomery, IL | LARGE TREE OVER THE ROADWAY IN HILLSBORO. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR. |
| 22:20 UTC | TORNADO | 4 N Farmersville | Montgomery, IL | A TORNADO DEVELOPED ABOUT 3 MILES NORTH-NORTHWEST OF FARMERSVILLE, ILLINOIS NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF ROVEY LANE AND EAST 1ST ROAD. A FEW STORM CHASERS CAPTURED VIDEO OF THE TORNADO AS IT MOVED NORTHEAST AND THEN NORTH TO |
| 22:35 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | New Baden | Clinton, IL | TREES DOWN ON POWER LINES IN NEW BADEN, IL. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR. |
| 22:48 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Breese | Clinton, IL | LARGE LIMB BROUGHT A POWER LINE DOWN IN BREESE, IL. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR. |
| 23:01 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 N Vandalia | Fayette, IL | LARGE TREE DOWN NORTH OF VANDALIA. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR. |
| 23:05 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 S Vandalia | Fayette, IL | POWER LINES DOWN ON SOUTH SIDE OF VANDALIA. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2020 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of July 15, 2020
9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 15 | 1:37 PM CDT | Unrated | Tazewell, IL | 0.1 | 10 | |||
| July 15 | 1:45 PM CDT | Unrated | Tazewell, IL | 0.1 | 10 | |||
| July 15 | 4:04 PM CDT | Unrated | McLean, IL | 0.2 | 10 | |||
| July 15 | 4:28 PM CDT | EF0 | Morgan, IL | 4.1 | 50 | $20,000 | ||
| July 15 | 4:47 PM CDT | Unrated | Macoupin, IL | 0.1 | 15 | |||
| July 15 | 5:05 PM CDT | EF0 | Montgomery, IL | 0.6 | 50 | |||
| July 15 | 5:18 PM CDT | EF0 | Sangamon, IL | 4.5 | 300 | |||
| July 15 | 6:03 PM MDT | EF0 | Socorro, NM | 0.3 | 30 | |||
| July 15 | 11:40 PM CDT | EF1 | Posey, IN | 4.3 | 80 | $95,000 |
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.