EF0 tornado, Candlewick Lake to Blaine, Illinois, April 30, 2022

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   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. 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

EF0

Date

April 30, 2022

Touchdown

5:54 PM CDT (22:54 UTC)

Lifted

5:55 PM CDT (22:55 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.5 miles (0.8 km)

Path width

60 yards (55 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Boone County

Touchdown point

42.352, -88.872

Lift-off point

42.355, -88.864

Record number

2204301654-01

5 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LOT, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 80 mph.

• Based on a video relayed via emergency management officials, at least four softwood trees were snapped or uprooted and laid down in a convergent pattern starting at the intersection of Briar Cliff Street SW and Candlewick Drive SW.
• Several floating docks where picked up and thrown across Candlewick Lake. Approximate end point of tornado based on radar data.
• Based on two photos from the public and relayed from NWS Milwaukee, a brief tornado occurred in an open field near the intersection of Coon Trail and Capron roads just south of the Wisconsin and Illinois state line. There is no known damage caused by the tornado. Accordingly, it will be assigned a preliminary rating of EF-U.
• Based on review of drone footage provided by the Rockford Fire Department and radar data from both the Chicago and Milwaukee NWS radars, it was determined that a narrow swath of straight line winds of 70 to 80 mph occurred near the intersection of 9th street and Broadway southeast of downtown Rockford. These winds caused the loss of a (predominantly metal?) roof to a building south of Broadway which subsequently resulted in the collapse of the west and south-facing walls. Roofing material from this building was blown in a north and northeast direction. Several power poles and trees were snapped along 9th street along with additional minor roof damage in the vicinity. The damage orientation was consistent with a divergent area of southerly straight line winds.

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

Scattered severe thunderstorms moved across northern Illinois on April 30th producing three tornadoes, large hail, localized wind damage and minor flooding.

A tornado with peak winds of 80 mph touched down just west of Candlewick Lake, near the intersection of Candlewick Drive and Briar Cliff Street. Several softwood trees were uprooted and snapped at the start of the path and laid in a convergent pattern. The tornado continued northeast across Candlewick Lake, where several floating docks were thrown across the lake. The tornado lifted as it reached the eastern side of the lake.

Based on two photos, a brief tornado touched down in a field just northeast of the intersection of Coon Trail and Capron Roads. No damage was reported.

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

8 minutes of warning. NWS LOT issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:46 UTC, 8 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:14 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:48 UTC and running to 00:12 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 20:10 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 Milwaukee radar (KMKX), 73 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:55 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 2022 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

6 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.