Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 2023

EF0 tornado, DuPage County, Illinois, February 27, 2023

This EF0 tornado ran 1.4 miles across DuPage County on February 27, 2023, touching down at 9:52 AM CST and reaching 30 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
February 27, 2023
Touchdown
9:52 AM CST (15:52 UTC)
Lifted
9:54 AM CST (15:54 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
1.4 miles (2.3 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
DuPage County
Touchdown point
41.784, -88.162
Lift-off point
41.804, -88.154
Record number
2302270952-01

The damage survey

13 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.

  • Multiple trees damaged in vicinity.
  • Possible roof damage, tarp on roof.
  • Likely roof damage, tarp on roof.
  • Fence blown down to the northeast.

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

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 12:57 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.

Lincoln, IL (KILX), 12:00Z

3.9 hours before the tornado, 187 km from the path. February 27, 2023.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2023-02-27Temperature 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 -72880, lifted condensation level 592 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, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2023-02-27The 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 509 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 50 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
-72880 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
592 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
50 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
54 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
509 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
441 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lincoln, IL (KILX), 00:00Z

8.1 hours after it, 187 km from the path. February 28, 2023.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2023-02-28Temperature 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 -93032, lifted condensation level 715 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, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2023-02-28The 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 99 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-93032 J/kg
Surface CAPE
27 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
715 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
99 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
80 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
2.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Chicago/Dupage (DPA), 15 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), 22 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 15:51 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 2023 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of February 27, 2023

15 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
February 271:02 AM CSTEF1Newton, MO0.8200$550,000
February 271:25 AM CSTEF0Dade, MO0.4200$50,000
February 271:47 AM CSTEF0Dade, MO1.3100
February 278:43 AM CSTEF0Champaign, IL1.130
February 278:55 AM CSTUnratedChampaign, IL1.525
February 279:15 AM CSTUnratedFord, IL1.650
February 279:41 AM CSTEF0Kendall, IL2.2100
February 271:28 PM ESTEF1Hancock, IN5.250$200,000
February 271:37 PM ESTEF1Hancock, IN0.350$50,000
February 272:37 PM ESTEF1Butler, OH4.2150$500,000
February 273:00 PM ESTEF0Van Wert, OH0.675$30,000
February 273:19 PM ESTEF1Clark, OH2.3300$250,000
February 2712:24 PM PSTUnratedMendocino, CA0.110
February 274:03 PM ESTEF0Pickaway, OH1.4100$150,000
February 274:41 PM ESTEF0Licking, OH0.390$10,000

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.