EF2 tornado, Keensburg to Monroe City, Illinois, May 19, 2022

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

May 19, 2022

Touchdown

9:31 PM CDT (02:31 UTC)

Lifted

10:03 PM CDT (03:03 UTC)

On the ground

32 minutes

Path length

26.9 miles (43.2 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$705,000

Counties

Wabash, Gibson and Knox counties

Touchdown point

38.344, -87.878

Lift-off point

38.609, -87.400

Record number

2205192031-01

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

• Numerous large branches down in this location
• Slight roof damage on a trailer.
• Several broken wooden poles leaning to the North
• Snap pole and also tree damage about 100 yds south

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

An organized complex of thunderstorms accompanied a pronounced mesoscale convective vortex (MCV) as it tracked across Missouri and Illinois. A corridor of moderate to strong instability formed ahead of the MCV from southern Missouri into southern Illinois and Indiana. The storms moved northeast from southeast Missouri across southwest Illinois in the form of a squall line early in the evening, with locally damaging winds. After weakening for a couple hours, the storms then redeveloped over the Wabash Valley region into an organized cluster with an embedded supercell. The supercell produced a tornado that tracked into southwest Indiana.

Two rounds of severe thunderstorms occurred. The first round during the mid afternoon hours was associated with a surge of higher dew points northward. Storms erupted along this effective front over southwest Indiana, which was beneath a region of warm moist wind flow at 850 mb. Very large hail accompanied a few of these storms. The second round was an organized complex of thunderstorms that accompanied a pronounced mesoscale convective vortex (MCV) that tracked across Missouri and Illinois. A corridor of moderate to strong instability formed ahead of the MCV from southern Missouri into southern Illinois and Indiana. After a brief lull over Illinois, the storms redeveloped during the evening over the Wabash Valley region as a small cluster with an embedded supercell. The supercell produced a tornado that tracked into southwest Indiana.

Ample instability and low-level vertical wind shear across central Indiana combined with a warm frontal boundary approaching from the south to produce several rotating, supercell thunderstorms. These storms produced large hail within a two hour late day period over several of the region's southwestern to south-central counties||Soon after, a rotating cluster of thunderstorms crossed southern central Indiana during the evening and early morning hours. This relative small, yet intense, complex of storms produced a long-track EF-1 tornado from Illinois into Gibson and Knox Counties in Indiana, as well as isolated, locally intense, damaging winds that were mainly in southeastern central Indiana.

The tornado touched down near Keensburg and moved northeast, passing across the southeast portion of Mount Carmel and across the Wabash River into Indiana. A few homes lost large portions of roofing, mainly shingles. Outbuildings and small sheds were destroyed. Numerous power lines were down. Many trees were snapped or uprooted. Many trees landed on homes and structures, causing some structural damage. Dozens of power poles were snapped off. A large machine shed lost small sections of metal roof and wall panels. Several pivot irrigation systems were flipped. Peak winds were estimated near 115 mph in Wabash County. The tornado crossed the Wabash River into Gibson County, Indiana.

The tornado crossed from Wabash County, Illinois into Gibson County. The tornado affected only a small corner of Gibson County between East Mt. Carmel and the White River. Several large trees were blown down. The peak rating in the Gibson County portion of the track was EF-1. The tornado then crossed the White River into Knox County, Indiana, where it paralleled the Gibson County line near the White River to U.S. Highway 41 and beyond.

Tornado crossed a county line 10 times in its 26.7-mile track from Illinois to Indiana, see below for lat/long/location/time details for each border crossing.||The tornado first entered the extreme southwestern corner of Knox County at 940 PM EST and proceeded to cause damage consistent with EF0/EF1 intensity: snapping two hardwood trees that fell onto power lines on South 1300 West at 13.4 miles west, breaking large hardwood tree branches on South County Road 1300 West at 18.3 miles south, and leaning two utility poles on South 1200 West at 19.9 miles south.||The tornado's center track then crossed the Knox-Gibson county line 4 times over a 1.4-mile segment roughly midway between Mt. Carmel, IL and Hazleton, IN before re-entering Knox County to cause damage consistent with EF0 intensity during 944-949 PM EST: breaking small hardwood tree limbs on South County Road 775 West at 18.6 miles south; and then along the 17.8 South parallel, blowing over 5 irrigation sections at 8.7 miles west, before blowing over two more irrigation sections and blowing in a barn door and tree damage at 8.1 miles west; and then breaking large hardwood tree branches along South County Road 775 West at both 17.0 miles south and 16.55 miles south.||The tornado track then entered the appendage of Gibson County west of Hazleton, IN for 0.5 miles before again re-entering Knox County to cause damage consistent with EF1 intensity at 952 PM EST: leaning utility poles and snapping several tree branches on West County Road 1750 South just west of Old US Route 41.||The tornado track then entered Gibson County for the final time while transecting the appendage north of Hazleton, IN for 1.0 miles before re-entering Knox County for the final time to cause damage consistent with EF0/EF1 intensity at 954 PM EST in the town of Decker, IN: uprooting large hardwood trees along Broadway Street near 3rd Street, with large hardwood branches snapped across southern and eastern portions of Decker.||The tornado continued to the northeast, next causing damage consistent with EF0/EF1 intensity during 955-959 PM EST: snapping branches of various sizes from both softwood and hardwood trees along Indiana Route 241 and East County Road 1250 South to the west of Iona, IN; as well as destroying an old barn on East 1250 South just east of South Decker Road by lifting the roof which allowed the walls to collapse.||The tornado's final observed damage was consistent with EF1 intensity during 1000-1003 PM EST : snapping several softwood trees on South Hart Road just northwest of Upper River Deshee, and fully destroying a barn on Southeast County Road 200 East east of Upper River Deshee, scattering debris several hundred feet to the northeast.||Further data regarding every county/state border crossing.|ILLINOIS: traveled 8.33 miles as EF0-EF2 before entering Gibson County Indiana.|INDIANA: traveled 18.36 miles as EF0-EF1: Gibson Co. (3.51 mi), Knox Co. (14.85 mi).|A, 38.410/-87.745, Mt. Carmel 1.1 ESE, 2139EST, Illinois to Indiana; |B, 38.417/-87.732, Mt. Carmel 1.8 E, 2140EST, Gibson to Knox; |C, 38.446/-87.674, Mt. Carmel 5.3 ENE, 2143EST, Knox to Gibson; |D, 38.448/-87.669, Mt. Carmel 5.6 ENE, 2143EST, Gibson to Knox; |E, 38.450/-87.664, Mt. Carmel 5.9 ENE, 2143EST, Knox to Gibson; |F, 38.455/-87.651, Mt. Carmel 6.7 ENE, 2144EST, Gibson to Knox; |G, 38.490/-87.586, Hazleton 2.3 W, 2150EST, Knox to Gibson; |H, 38.494/-87.577, Hazleton 1.9 W, 2150EST, Gibson to Knox; |I, 38.507/-87.546, Hazleton 1.2 N, 2152EST, Knox to Gibson; |J, 38.515/-87.530, Decker 0.4 SSW, 2153EST, Gibson to Knox;|K, 38.609/-87.400, Monroe City 2.5 WSW, 2203EST, End of track in Knox Co, IN.

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.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:40 UTC and running to 04:00 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:36 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 Evansville,IN radar (KVWX), 25 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:33 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

12 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.