EF1 tornado, Sunfield, Illinois, March 19, 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

March 19, 2020

Touchdown

3:44 PM CDT (20:44 UTC)

Lifted

3:46 PM CDT (20:46 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

3.2 miles (5.1 km)

Path width

125 yards (114 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

Property damage

$300,000

County

Perry County

Touchdown point

38.065, -89.244

Lift-off point

38.083, -89.190

Record number

2003191444-01

26 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS PAH, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 104 mph.

• Nearly the entire back roof of house was blown off including decking
• Numerous large trees snapped or uprooted.
• twin axle camper blown at least 300 yards to NE
• garage detached from house

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

Short lines of thunderstorms with embedded circulations moved across southern Illinois during the afternoon of the 19th. Widespread heavy rain caused isolated flash flooding. The storms occurred just south of a warm front under a very strong southwest low level flow, around 60 knots at 850 mb. An upper level disturbance over the Ozark Mountains contributed to the storms.

The tornado started near the community of Sunfield on U.S. Highway 51. At least a dozen homes were damaged, including four with major structural damage. This included numerous broken windows and roof damage. One home had part of its roof decking removed, and another had its attached garage blown apart from the house. At least five camper trailers were blown over, with one lofted over 200 yards across a field. Several outbuildings and garages were partly or completely levelled. Dozens of trees were snapped or uprooted. Some power lines were down. A trained spotter witnessed the tornado. The tornado path crossed Du Quoin Lake and ended on Highway 154. Peak winds were estimated near 100 mph.

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

12 minutes of warning. NWS PAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:32 UTC, 12 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:55 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 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:58 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.

Carbondale/Murph (MDH), 33 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Paducah radar (KPAH), 118 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:46 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

11 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.