EF0 tornado, Sandwich to Lisbon, Illinois, July 28, 2023

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

July 28, 2023

Touchdown

10:32 PM CDT (03:32 UTC)

Lifted

10:34 PM CDT (03:34 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.8 miles (1.3 km)

Path width

20 yards (18 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Kendall and DeKalb counties

Touchdown point

41.641, -88.611

Lift-off point

41.644, -88.596

Record number

2307282132-01

72 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 85 mph.

• Faacia on house damaged, wall torn off part of home, morton building damaged
• Grass matted down in a southeast direction.
• Broken window on northside of building
• Wind got in on west side and popped roof on the east side of building off. Cellulose and insulation plastered on east wall.

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

July 28th saw two rounds of severe storms move across the Chicago metro, one during the predawn hours of the morning and another during the evening. The first round brought isolated instances of damaging wind to the area and the second featured damaging winds, severe hail, and 13 tornadoes across the WFO Chicago CWA: 11 in Illinois and 2 in Indiana. Additionally, temperatures in the 90s and high humidity resulted in oppressively hot conditions with afternoon heat indices as high as 105-115��F.

According to high resolution satellite imagery and drone imagery provided by a private citizen, a brief tornado touched down near Harvey Creek Conservation Area Park on the southeast side of Sandwich. The tornado moved to the east-northeast crossing into Kendall County shortly after forming. The storm mainly impacted agricultural land but caused roof damage to an outbuilding south of Griswold Springs Road.

This tornado began just west of Stephens Road north of US Rt. 52 and tracked east-southeastward toward the town of Lisbon. The most significant damage occurred as the tornado initially developed and tracked along and just north of US Route 52 west of Roods Road. Damage consistent with high-end EF-0 winds occurred with this narrow tornado, including large downed trees, and a few residences sustaining removal of roofing materials and damage to farm silos. Insulation material was found plastered on the east side of a pole barn on Stephens Road, and a broken window and siding damage was seen on the north side of Duane's Motel. The tornado crossed US Route 52, causing intermittent minor damage to trees as it moved toward Lisbon. The tornado appeared to lift in a field just east of Lisbon.

A brief EF-0 tornado touched down in corn fields just east of Highway 47 and north of Whitewillow Rd east of Lisbon. It was on the ground for only a short time before lifting at Whitewillow Rd and Ashley Rd. Damage was confined to crops and a few trees which had large limbs broken off. High resolution satellite data showed a clear path in a corn field that corresponded to damage seen during an in-person damage survey, east of a tornado that lifted to the west. A gap in damage was noted between the tornado to the west and this tornado, giving confidence there were two separate tornadoes.

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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 00:31 UTC and running to 04:22 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:53 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 Chicago radar (KLOT), 43 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:32 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

16 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.