Unrated tornado, Greenfield to Barr, Illinois, April 18, 2024

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.

Rating

Unrated

Date

April 18, 2024

Touchdown

4:51 PM CDT (21:51 UTC)

Lifted

5:04 PM CDT (22:04 UTC)

On the ground

13 minutes

Path length

4.3 miles (6.9 km)

Path width

10 yards (9 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Greene and Macoupin counties

Touchdown point

39.387, -90.212

Lift-off point

39.414, -90.141

Record number

2404181551-01

6 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LSX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry.

• Storm spotter saw brief touchdown in field west of Kemper, IL. No damage indicators from survey.
• Hi-res satellite imagery shows ground scouring beginning here.
• Hi-res satellite imagery shows ground scouring here.

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

During the afternoon and evening of April 18, 2024, discrete supercell thunderstorms developed along a cold front moving through the bi-state area. These storms were initially mainly capable of producing large hail and damaging wind gusts, but become tornadic as additional thunderstorms formed along the front. Due to the additional thunderstorms storms congealed into a QLCS that impacted portions of southwestern Illinois. The QLCS was responsible for several tornadoes and instances of straight line wind damage in this part of the area. Fortunately, no injuries or fatalities were reported with these thunderstorms.

A tornado track was interpolated between spotter reports and storm chaser videos in Greene County, on Illinois Route 267 just south of intersection with NE 700 Street. The tornado tracked to the northeast, crossing into Macoupin County about three quarters of a mile south of Palmyra Road. The tornado may have lifted and touched down multiple times. During a storm survey no damage indicators were found, thus the tornado is rated EFU with an approximate path length of 3.68 miles in Greene County. Overall, the path length was 4.31 miles.

After crossing into Macoupin County, the tornado continued to the northeast before dissipating near intersection of Spruce Road and McClelland Road. The tornado may have lifted and touched down multiple times. No damage indicators were found in Macoupin County, thus the tornado was rated EFU with an approximate path length of 0.63 miles. Overall, the path length was 4.31 miles.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 17:59 UTC and running to 23:56 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 19:53 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.

Jacksonville (IJX), 42 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The St Louis radar (KLSX), 89 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:51 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.

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 2024 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

13 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.