Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 2024

Unrated tornado, Melvin, Illinois, July 4, 2024

This Unrated tornado ran 1.3 miles across Ford County on July 4, 2024, touching down at 1:37 PM CDT 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 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 4, 2024
Touchdown
1:37 PM CDT (18:37 UTC)
Lifted
1:51 PM CDT (18:51 UTC)
On the ground
14 minutes
Path length
1.3 miles (2.1 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Ford County
Touchdown point
40.530, -88.220
Lift-off point
40.547, -88.212
Record number
2407041237-01

The damage survey

1 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.

  • Approximate start point of landspout, per the Ford County EMA

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

What the Weather Service recorded

Isolated thunderstorms produced a landspout tornado near Melvin in Ford County during the afternoon of July 4th.

Video and photos showed a slow moving landspout tornado that developed near County Road E 9000N between N 1200E and N 1300E. It was intermittently in contact with the ground before it dissipated over a field northeast of the intersection of County Roads N 1300E and E 1000N. No damage was reported.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:30 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

6.6 hours before the tornado, 54 km from the path. July 4, 2024.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2024-07-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 690 joules per kilogram, CIN -12, lifted condensation level 757 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 2024-07-04The 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 61 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
690 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-12 J/kg
Surface CAPE
706 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
757 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
61 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
15 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
1.5
0-3 km lapse rate
5.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lincoln, IL (KILX), 00:00Z

5.4 hours after it, 54 km from the path. July 5, 2024.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2024-07-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 61 joules per kilogram, CIN -207, lifted condensation level 1039 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 2024-07-05The 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 2 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 53 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
61 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-207 J/kg
Surface CAPE
256 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1039 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
53 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
1 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
2 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
86 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Rantoul (TIP), 28 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
16:55 UTC7466.4110° 7 kt1012.5
17:15 UTC76.667.6140° 9 kt1012.5
17:35 UTC7567.5150° 6 kt1012.9
17:55 UTC74.366.70° 0 kt1013.2
18:15 UTC73.467.50° 0 kt1013.5+RA
18:35 UTC73650° 0 kt1013.5RA
18:55 UTC72.566.4160° 3 kt1013.2-DZ
19:15 UTC72.3660° 0 kt1013.2-RA
19:35 UTC7467.3360° 4 kt1012.9
19:55 UTC73.665.530° 8 kt1012.9
20:15 UTC73.46430° 8 kt1012.9
20:35 UTC72.564.430° 9 kt1012.9

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

The radar

The Lincoln radar (KILX), 104 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:35 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
17:53 UTCRAIN 1.07Willard AirportChampaign, ILASOS station KCMI Willard Arpt.
17:56 UTCRAIN 1.012 Sse UrbanaChampaign, ILMesonet station DW6125 Urbana.
18:00 UTCRAIN 12 Sse UrbanaChampaign, ILMesonet station FW0668 Urbana.
18:39 UTCLANDSPOUT3 Sse MelvinFord, ILVideo and photos from EM indicating a landspout developed near E 900N between N 1200 E and N 1300E. It was intermittently in contact with the ground before the funnel dissipated over a field about a mile to the northeast

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 4, 2024

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 41:05 PM EDTEF0Harrison, IN1.0125
July 412:12 PM CDTUnratedWells, ND0.450
July 41:27 PM EDTEF1Jefferson, KY0.5170
July 48:44 PM EDTEF0Logan, OH0.250$5,000

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.