EF2 tornado, Wrights, Illinois, October 11, 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

October 11, 2021

Touchdown

2:37 PM CDT (19:37 UTC)

Lifted

2:45 PM CDT (19:45 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

5.8 miles (9.4 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$100,000

County

Greene County

Touchdown point

39.355, -90.300

Lift-off point

39.434, -90.261

Record number

2110111337-01

33 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LSX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 115 mph.

• Starting point from Sentinel Data

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

On Monday, October 11th 2021 (Columbus Day), the potential for severe weather existed across east-central/northeast Missouri and most of central and northern Illinois. Despite limited instability (energy for storms to develop), plentiful shear (changing wind speed or direction with height) from a potent mid-level storm system provided the potential for severe storms. Though most storms never became strong or severe, one supercell in particular became organized enough to produce a tornado.

High resolution satellite data and information from storm spotters indicates the tornado touched down in an open field a little less than a mile south-southwest of the Berdan Road and Wrights Road intersection. The tornado moved north-northeast and intensified as it moved into the west side of the town of Wrights, IL. In Wrights, the tornado destroyed two new, well-built farm buildings, ripping one of from a concrete foundation around the perimeter of the building. The tornado then moved to the northeast, destroying two more farm buildings before crossing Wrights road, where it snapped a number of trees and rolled a camper onto a boat. The tornado continued to the northeast causing intermittent damage to trees and vegetation. The high resolution satellite data showed a prominent track in the open fields northeast of the NE 850 Ave and Super Slab Road Intersection. The last identifiable damage and where the tornado appeared to have ended is around a third of a mile west of the NE 1000 Street and NE 950 Ave Intersection. The tornado was rated EF2 with max wind speed of 115 mph. The path length was 5.83 miles with a max path width of 75 yards. No deaths or injuries were reported.

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:19 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 St Louis radar (KLSX), 85 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:39 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

9 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.