Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 2022

EF0 tornado, Little Rock to Big Rock, Illinois, November 5, 2022

From Little Rock to Big Rock, this EF0 tornado ran 3.7 miles across Kendall and Kane counties on November 5, 2022, touching down at 11:06 AM CDT and reaching 100 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 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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
November 5, 2022
Touchdown
11:06 AM CDT (16:06 UTC)
Lifted
11:10 AM CDT (16:10 UTC)
On the ground
4 minutes
Path length
3.7 miles (6.0 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Counties
Kendall and Kane counties
Touchdown point
41.717, -88.573
Lift-off point
41.767, -88.550
Record number
2211051006-01

The damage survey

6 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.

  • numerous large branches downed

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 strong cold front moved across northern Illinois during the late morning and early afternoon of November 5th with convective showers which produced thunderstorm wind damage and one tornado. Wind damage from the convection was described as countywide across Ogle, Boone and McHenry Counties. DuPage Airport measured a peak wind gust to 77 mph. A handheld anemometer measured a wind gust to 80 mph near Roselle.||High winds caused tree damage both in the early morning of November 5th and then again in the afternoon of November 5th. A large portion of a roof was blown off an apartment building in Elk Grove Village. Some trees fell onto vehicles in Chicago. Peak wind gusts included 62 mph at DuPage Airport; 61 mph at Aurora Municipal Airport; 59 mph at Chicago Midway and Chicago Executive Airports and 58 mph at Waukegan Airport.

A tornado with peak winds of 80 mph touched down just south of Galena Road near Little Rock and moved north crossing into Kane County. Sporadic tree and power line damage occurred along its path.

A tornado with peak winds of 80 mph touched down near Little Rock in Kendall County and moved north into Kane County. The tornado produced sporadic tree and power line damage along its path. Roof damage occurred to a barn near Jericho Road. The tornado moved across parts of northwest Big Rock and lifted just north of Route 30.

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

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the tornado touched down, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Chicago, IL wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Nov 5, 10:59 AM CDT, 7 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Nov 5, 10:59 AM CDT, 7 minutes before
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Hazardous weather outlook, Nov 5, 2:31 AM CDT, 8 hours 35 minutes before
Hazardous Weather Outlook
National Weather Service Chicago/Romeoville IL
231 AM CDT Sat Nov 5 2022

ILZ003>006-008-010>013-019>021-023-032-033-039-103>108-INZ001-002-
010-011-019-060745-
Winnebago-Boone-McHenry-Lake IL-Ogle-Lee-De Kalb-Kane-DuPage-
La Salle-Kendall-Grundy-Kankakee-Livingston-Iroquois-Ford-
Northern Cook-Central Cook-Southern Cook-Northern Will-
Southern Will-Eastern Will-Lake IN-Porter-Newton-Jasper-Benton-
231 AM CDT Sat Nov 5 2022 /331 AM EDT Sat Nov 5 2022/

This Hazardous Weather Outlook is for portions of North Central
Illinois...Northeast Illinois and Northwest Indiana.

.DAY ONE...Today and Tonight.

Weather hazards expected...

  Significant Non Thunderstorm Wind Risk.

DISCUSSION...

Strong winds will develop rapidly toward daybreak and persist
through sunset. Peak gusts of 45 to 55 are expected areawide
throughout the day with a period of 55 to 60 mph gusts along and
east of Interstate 55 this morning. Prepare for downed tree limbs
and scattered power outages, especially along and east of
Interstate 55.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...Sunday through Friday.

  No hazardous weather is expected at this time.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

  Spotter activation will not be necessary through tonight.

LMZ740>745-060745-
Winthrop Harbor to Wilmette Harbor IL-
Wilmette Harbor to Northerly Island IL-
Northerly Island to Calumet Harbor IL-
Calumet Harbor IL to Gary IN-Gary to Burns Harbor IN-
Burns Harbor to Michigan City IN-
231 AM CDT Sat Nov 5 2022

This Hazardous Weather Outlook is for portions of the Illinois
nearshore waters of Lake Michigan and the Indiana nearshore
waters of Lake Michigan.

.DAY ONE...Today and Tonight.

Weather hazards expected...

  Storm force winds and or extremely hazardous waves.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...Sunday through Friday.

Sunday through Tuesday...
  Hazardous conditions for small craft are likely.

Borchardt

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In the hours before

Local storm report, Nov 5, 9:04 AM CDT, 2 hours 2 minutes before
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Local storm report, Nov 5, 9:15 AM CDT, 1 hour 51 minutes before
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Local storm report, Nov 5, 9:43 AM CDT, 1 hour 23 minutes before
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Local storm report, Nov 5, 10:06 AM CDT, 1 hour before
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The surface observations

Chicago/Aurora (ARR), 7 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
00:00 UTC

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The radar

The Chicago radar (KLOT), 42 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 16:04 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.

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

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.