Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 2022

Unrated tornado, Baileyville, Illinois, May 26, 2022

This Unrated tornado ran 0.1 miles across Ogle County on May 26, 2022, touching down at 2:20 PM CDT and reaching 20 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
May 26, 2022
Touchdown
2:20 PM CDT (19:20 UTC)
Lifted
2:21 PM CDT (19:21 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Ogle County
Touchdown point
42.171, -89.601
Lift-off point
42.170, -89.602
Record number
2205261320-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A brief tornado occurred in northwest Ogle County during the afternoon of May 26th.

Based on multiple spotter reports, a brief tornado touched down in a field just south of Coffman Road two miles south of Baileyville. Spotters reported rotating dust underneath a funnel cloud. The tornado was on the ground for approximately 30 seconds. No damage was reported.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:45 UTC12:00 UTCFlood WatchLOT

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 15:54 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.

Davenport, (KDVN), 12:00Z

7.3 hours before the tornado, 96 km from the path. May 26, 2022.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Davenport, at 12:00Z on 2022-05-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 66 joules per kilogram, CIN -119, lifted condensation level 862 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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, Davenport, at 12:00Z on 2022-05-26The 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 17 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 41 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
66 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-119 J/kg
Surface CAPE
309 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
862 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
17 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
13 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Davenport, (KDVN), 00:00Z

4.7 hours after it, 96 km from the path. May 27, 2022.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Davenport, at 00:00Z on 2022-05-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -87224, lifted condensation level 1255 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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, Davenport, at 00:00Z on 2022-05-27The 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 28 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 7 knots.1939Sfc1 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-87224 J/kg
Surface CAPE
189 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1255 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
28 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-32 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Quad Cities radar (KDVN), 102 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:19 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
19:20 UTCTORNADO3 Nnw ForrestonOgle, ILDELAYED CONFIRMATION FROM EARLIER THIS AFTERNOON OF A 30 SECOND DURATION TORNADO BASED ON MULTIPLE SPOTTER REPORTS OF ROTATING DUST UNDERNEATH A FUNNEL NORTHWEST OF FORRESTON. LOCATION IS ESTIMATED BASED ON SPOTTER POSIT

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2022 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 26, 2022

9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 267:15 AM EDTEF0Colleton, SC0.775
May 261:25 PM CDTEF1Morgan, AL0.765$15,000
May 264:13 PM EDTEF0Cleveland, NC0.225
May 264:23 PM EDTEF0Cleveland, NC0.025
May 266:59 PM EDTEF2Iredell, NC6.01501$30,000
May 267:13 PM EDTEF1Yadkin, NC1.5100$15,000
May 267:33 PM EDTUnratedMontgomery, IN0.110
May 267:50 PM EDTEF1Greenup, KY0.860$20,000
May 269:03 PM EDTEF1Surry, NC2.8100$11,000

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.