EF1 tornado, Joy to Burgess, Illinois, November 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

November 10, 2020

Touchdown

2:02 PM CST (20:02 UTC)

Lifted

2:03 PM CST (20:03 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.5 miles (0.9 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Mercer County

Touchdown point

41.123, -90.669

Lift-off point

41.130, -90.663

Record number

2011101402-01

5 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS DVN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.

• Wooden power poles snapped. Trees and limbs down.
• Farm outbuilding destroyed.

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

A strong and quick moving cold front made its way through the Midwest. The environment ahead of the cold front was unseasonably warm, with temperatures in the upper 60s and readings in the 40s not far behind the front. This led to strong baroclinicity along the front, and subsequent convection with just the right amount of instability. This is considered a high shear low CAPE (HSLC) event, where organized severe thunderstorms are favored in this environment. Potential hazards are damaging winds, large hail, and tornadoes. Six tornadoes were confirmed and several wind reports were received (ranging between 50-60 mph, with a few gusts over 60 mph). Damage reports ranged from structural damage to tree damage. Many residents were left without power in parts of northwestern IL, leading to some schools canceling classes on the 11th. Besides the strong winds, a few severe hail reports were received.||In addition, heavy rain occurred with some of the stronger storms, with rainfall totals over an inch. For how dry it has been, flash flooding was not much of a concern. While the environment was very moist and favorable for heavy rainfall, the fast storm motions led to little accumulation through much of our forecast area.

A tornado touched down southwest of Joy, destroying an outbuilding. This tornado followed an intermittent path about 14 miles through Mercer County, exiting the county about 3 miles west of Reynolds. The tornado was rated EF-1 in Mercer County, with maximum winds around 100 mph. Occasional tree damage was observed between Joy and Hamlet.

Brief tornado touchdown with 100 mph peak winds and a 30 yard path width. This tornado destroyed a large grain bin about 1.4 miles west of Burgess, IL.

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

13 minutes of warning. NWS DVN issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:49 UTC, 13 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:15 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 17:32 UTC and running to 21:08 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:48 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.

The Quad Cities radar (KDVN), 54 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:59 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

8 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.