Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 2024

Unrated tornado, Marion County, Illinois, July 29, 2024

This Unrated tornado ran 0.1 miles across Marion County on July 29, 2024, touching down at 8:45 PM CDT and reaching 10 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 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.

The record

Rating
Unrated
Date
July 29, 2024
Touchdown
8:45 PM CDT (01:45 UTC)
Lifted
8:46 PM CDT (01:46 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.1 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Marion County
Touchdown point
38.890, -89.790
Lift-off point
38.890, -89.789
Record number
2407291945-01

The warnings

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
01:11 UTC02:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLSX
01:50 UTC02:17 UTCTornado WarningLSX
02:16 UTC03:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLSX
03:00 UTC03:57 UTCFlood AdvisoryLSX
03:57 UTC08:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningLSX
04:38 UTC08:15 UTCFlood AdvisoryLSX
18:00 UTC00:00 UTCExcessive Heat WarningLSX

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:12 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), 00:00Z

1.8 hours before the tornado, 173 km from the path. July 30, 2024.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2024-07-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2206 joules per kilogram, CIN -5, lifted condensation level 831 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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 2024-07-30The 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 75 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 40 knots.193958Sfc1 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
2206 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-5 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3349 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
831 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
75 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
116 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.9
Supercell composite
5.8
0-3 km lapse rate
6.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lincoln, IL (KILX), 12:00Z

10.2 hours after it, 173 km from the path. July 30, 2024.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2024-07-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 695 joules per kilogram, CIN -122, lifted condensation level 1102 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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 2024-07-30The 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 72 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 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
695 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-122 J/kg
Surface CAPE
84 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1102 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
72 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
90 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
2.6
0-3 km lapse rate
3.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The St Louis radar (KLSX), 80 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:42 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
01:45 UTCTORNADO2 Nnw KaufmanMadison, ILStorm chasers reported a rope tornado west of Alhambra.
02:45 UTCFLASH FLOOD1 Ssw VandaliaFayette, ILSeveral roads in town were flooded from the heavy rains including Kennedy Blvd.
04:14 UTCHAIL 0.51 S TroyMadison, ILReport from mPING: Half-inch (0.50 in.).
04:30 UTCFLASH FLOODGrantforkMadison, ILSeveral roads in and around Grantfork were flooded.
04:44 UTCRAIN 2.47LebanonSt. Clair, ILmore than 2 inches of this fell in the last hour (0.44 earlier in the day).
04:45 UTCRAIN 2.353 E HighlandMadison, IL

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2024 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of July 29, 2024

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 292:24 PM CDTEF0Rutherford, TN3.3100$750,000
July 299:41 PM EDTEF2Madison, IN3.050$765,000
July 299:44 PM EDTEF0Franklin, IN0.780$10,000
July 291:40 AM EDTEF1Warren, OH8.0200$50,000

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.