Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 2021

Unrated tornado, Barrow, Illinois, June 26, 2021

This Unrated tornado ran 0.1 miles across Greene County on June 26, 2021, touching down at 1:26 PM CDT and reaching 25 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.

  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.

The record

Rating
Unrated
Date
June 26, 2021
Touchdown
1:26 PM CDT (18:26 UTC)
Lifted
1:28 PM CDT (18:28 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Greene County
Touchdown point
39.512, -90.396
Lift-off point
39.513, -90.393
Record number
2106261226-01

The damage survey

1 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LSX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry.

  • Sheriff's deputy reported a tornado in a field to the northwest of Roodhouse, IL moving toward Manchester, IL.

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 composite outflow boundary extending from the Kansas City area towards southeast Missouri was a focus for new development from the evening hours of June 25th through June 26th. There were numerous reports of damaging winds and flash flooding with this event, as well as a tornado.

A brief, narrow tornado touched down in a field to the northwest of Roodhouse, IL on Saturday afternoon. A sheriff`s deputy reported that the tornado briefly touched down before lifting as the storm moved toward Manchester, IL. No damage was noted. The tornado was rated EFU with a path length of approximately 0.15 miles and a path width of 25 yards.

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

The warnings

4 minutes of warning. NWS LSX issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:22 UTC, 4 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:37 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
02:29 UTC08:30 UTCFlash Flood WarningLSX
08:29 UTC17:06 UTCFlood WarningLSX
18:22 UTC18:37 UTCTornado WarningLSX
19:09 UTC20:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLSX

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:21 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

6.4 hours before the tornado, 169 km from the path. June 26, 2021.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2021-06-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 683 joules per kilogram, CIN -28, lifted condensation level 684 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2021-06-26The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 263 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 31 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
683 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-28 J/kg
Surface CAPE
672 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
684 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
263 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
229 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.5
Supercell composite
3.1
0-3 km lapse rate
4.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lincoln, IL (KILX), 00:00Z

5.6 hours after it, 169 km from the path. June 27, 2021.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2021-06-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 33 joules per kilogram, CIN -122, lifted condensation level 1160 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2021-06-27The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 97 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 35 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
33 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-122 J/kg
Surface CAPE
948 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1160 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
97 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
134 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.7
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The St Louis radar (KLSX), 94 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:28 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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
18:28 UTCTORNADOBarrowGreene, ILSHERIFFS DEPUTY REPORTED A TORNADO IN A FIELD TO THE NORTHWEST OF ROODHOUSE, IL MOVING TOWARD MANCHESTER, IL. NO DAMAGE WAS REPORTED.
19:04 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 Nne HamburgCalhoun, ILCOUNTY DISPATCH REPORTS TREES DOWN ON A NUMBER ROADS ACROSS THE NORTHERN PORTION OF THE COUNTY.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2021 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 26, 2021

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 261:29 PM CDTEF0Lake, IN3.3250
June 262:06 PM CDTEF0Will, IL4.1100
June 263:31 PM EDTEF0Ottawa, MI2.425$100,000
June 263:33 PM EDTEF1Mecosta, MI2.9100$100,000
June 264:23 PM EDTEF0Kent, MI0.650$50,000
June 264:31 PM EDTEF0Ionia, MI1.125$75,000
June 263:35 PM CDTEF0Logan, IL0.275
June 264:40 PM EDTEF1Ionia, MI5.050$250,000
June 265:09 PM EDTEF0Clare, MI3.7100$100,000
June 264:36 PM CDTEF0Livingston, IL0.775
June 265:49 PM EDTEF2Huron, MI6.84006$1.9 million

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.