Unrated tornado, Zearing to Princeton, Illinois, August 9, 2021

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 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. Unratedthis tornado

   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

Unrated

Date

August 9, 2021

Touchdown

7:24 PM CDT (00:24 UTC)

Lifted

7:26 PM CDT (00:26 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

1.1 miles (1.8 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Bureau County

Touchdown point

41.410, -89.550

Lift-off point

41.410, -89.520

Record number

2108091824-01

23 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 105 mph.

• Center of path. Damage to crops at location.
• Norrhern edge of track with crop damage
• Southern edge of circulation
• Damage to corn and soybeans half way through field east. 300 feet wide

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

Severe thunderstorms developed across all of northern and northwest Illinois on the evening of August 9, 2021. An outflow boundary present from morning storms lead to a favorable environment for tornadic development, with several forming from Bureau County to just west of the Chicago metro area. Three tornadoes occurred during the evening damaged corn, soybeans, and several farmsteads near Arlington, IL.

EF1 tornado begun in a corn field causing damage to crops. As the tornado moved to the east the tornado caused damage to four farmsteads. EF1 damage was found at the first and second farmstead where trees were snapped and three sheds were completely destroyed. Another ten structures were damaged at the other farmsteads. Damage continued east mainly to soybean and corn fields. As the tornado approached Arlington, another farmstead was hit. A well built farm outbuilding was destroyed. Damage to the siding of the house at this location was found as well. The tornado then begun to occlude, shrink in size and turn northeast through a cemetery.

NWS Storm Survey and drone footage confirmed a tornado damage path in corn and soybeans.

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

12 minutes of warning. NWS DVN issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:12 UTC, 12 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:44 UTC and running to 02:44 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 19:54 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), 90 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:25 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 2021 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

19 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.