EF1 tornado, Ezra to Frankfort Hgts, Illinois, December 5, 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 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

December 5, 2021

Touchdown

10:21 PM CST (04:21 UTC)

Lifted

10:28 PM CST (04:28 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

3.9 miles (6.2 km)

Path width

175 yards (160 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$80,000

County

Franklin County

Touchdown point

37.900, -88.970

Lift-off point

37.910, -88.900

Record number

2112052221-01

18 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 95 mph.

• Roof peeled back on business
• Trees uprooted and large limbs down. Damage to gas station canopy. Est width 180 yards
• Appears wind got into building by blowing in garage doors. Then uplifted the roof. Power lines and trees down around the area.
• Debris from dish network garage thrown at least 200 yards.

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

A strong cold front moved through the region, preceded by numerous thunderstorms during the evening hours on December 5th and into the early morning on the 6th. Pockets of damaging winds accompanied the strongest storms. There was a tornado that touched down in southern Illinois. During the evening, a loose clustering of storms and embedded supercells caused most of the severe weather. Although instability was quite weak, the severe storms were supported by very strong wind shear.

The tornado tracked from west to east across the far northern part of the city of West Frankfort. The most significant damage was on the west side of Interstate 57, where a few metal structures sustained major damage. These structures were businesses which lost all or part of their roofs. In the residential neighborhoods to the east of the interstate, light roof damage occurred to a few houses, which lost some shingles. Tree limbs and a few trees were blown down. At one point just over 2,000 people were without power. Peak winds were estimated near 95 mph.

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

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.

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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:42 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.

Marion Regional (MWA), 18 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Paducah radar (KPAH), 94 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:19 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

2 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.