EF1 tornado, Marcelline, Illinois, August 5, 2023

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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF1

Date

August 5, 2023

Touchdown

2:24 AM CDT (07:24 UTC)

Lifted

2:31 AM CDT (07:31 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

2.9 miles (4.6 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Adams County

Touchdown point

40.110, -91.376

Lift-off point

40.124, -91.326

Record number

2308050124-01

21 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LSX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 90 mph.

• 30 trees snapped 5 to 10 feet up

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

An MCV moved through northern sections of Missouri during the evening of August 4th into the early morning hours of August 5th. Widespread showers and storms developed. Some of the storms became severe. There were some damaging winds reported as well as two tornadoes. One tornado moved through Baring, MO with most of the town sustaining some kind of damage. Also, two people sustained minor injuries. Another tornado developed in Adams County in Illinois near Marcelline.

The tornado developed about three quarters of a mile south southwest of Marcelline, IL around 2:24 AM on August 5th, 2023. It tracked to the east-northeast, crossing Illinois Route 96 just north of 2400th Avenue, snapping tree limbs and displacing power poles. Further northeast, it then crossed N 2450th Avenue where it caused damage to a few homes and trees in the area. After crossing E 900th Street north of the intersection with N 2450th Avenue, it crossed E 953rd Lane and caused additional damage to a home, an outbuilding, and trees. The tornado lifted after this damage, around 2:31 AM. Overall, the tornado was rated EF1 with a path length of 2.87 miles. The max path width was 200 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.

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:51 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), 168 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:24 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 2023 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.