EF1 tornado, Virgil to Geneva, Illinois, July 14, 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 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

July 14, 2024

Touchdown

9:28 PM CDT (02:28 UTC)

Lifted

9:40 PM CDT (02:40 UTC)

On the ground

12 minutes

Path length

9.0 miles (14.5 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Kane County

Touchdown point

41.919, -88.540

Lift-off point

41.894, -88.375

Record number

2407142028-01

64 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LOT, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EFU. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.

• Part of roof peeled off Metro Self Storage building
• Shopping cart corrals tossed around and small tree uprooted in Meijer parking lot.
• Damage to Meijer greenhouse/garden center.
• A metal outbuilding was destroyed, and several trees were downed. Several 2x4s were driven at least a foot deep into the ground. The horses survived.

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

Thunderstorms developed during the evening of July 14th and continued into the early morning of July 15th, as they moved across all of northern and central Illinois. Nine tornadoes occurred, along with widespread wind damage. In the City of Chicago, there were 2,810 tree emergency calls and 1,430 calls for tree debris. Localized flash flooding also occurred, for a second night in a row in the Rockford area.

A tornado with estimated peak winds of 100 mph touched down just northwest of the intersection of McNulty Road and Meredith Road, where crop damage was evident in high resolution satellite imagery. The tornado moved southeast producing tree damage and then began moving to the east as it moved through Elburn where trees were blown down and damage occurred to a few farm buildings and houses. The tornado moved to the east northeast after passing Elburn and destroyed a metal farm building at an equestrian center. Several trees were blown down and several 2x4 boards were driven at least one foot into the ground. It is at this location where the tornado was likely at peak intensity. The tornado ended halfway between Brundige Road and Peck Road, south of Route 38.

A brief tornado with estimated peak winds of 80 mph touched down just northwest of Route 38, about halfway between Peck Road and Randall Road. The tornado moved southeast causing roof damage to a self storage building, damaging a greenhouse and tossing shopping cart corrals around at a grocery store. A light pole was knocked over and several trees were snapped and uprooted. The tornado ended just northeast of the intersection of Randall Road and Bricher Road.

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

8 minutes of warning. NWS LOT issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:20 UTC, 8 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:00 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 22:55 UTC and running to 04:52 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:59 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), 46 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:30 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.