Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 2024

Unrated tornado, Good Hope to Bardolph, Illinois, June 13, 2024

From Good Hope to Bardolph, this Unrated tornado ran 0.1 miles across McDonough County on June 13, 2024, touching down at 6:56 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
June 13, 2024
Touchdown
6:56 PM CDT (23:56 UTC)
Lifted
6:57 PM CDT (23:57 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
McDonough County
Touchdown point
40.547, -90.649
Lift-off point
40.547, -90.648
Record number
2406131756-01

The damage survey

1 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS DVN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EFU.

  • A brief tornado touchdown was observed by a chaser northeast of the Macomb Municipal Airport. This tornado occured in an open field and no damage was observed. Therefore the tornado will be rated EF-Ukn.

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

A warm, moist, and unstable air mass across the region ahead of a southward sinking cold front resulted in thunderstorm development, with several being severe. These produced large hail and scattered damaging winds. Most hail reports ranged in size from quarter to golf ball size hail. The largest hail fell in Van Buren County near Keosauqua where 2 to 3 inch diameter hail fell. There were also a few reports of 60 to 80 MPH across far southeast Iowa into west central Illinois, which damaged trees and knocked down several outbuildings. The most widespread damage occurred near Oakville, IA. Two brief, non-damaging tornadoes were also seen north of Macomb, IL.

A brief tornado touchdown was observed by a chaser northeast of the Macomb Municipal Airport. This tornado occurred in an open field and no damage was observed. Therefore, the tornado is rated EF-Unknown.

A brief tornado was observed in an open field between Bushnell and Bardolph. There was no observed damage with the tornado, and therefore has been assigned an EF-Unknown.

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

The warnings

4 minutes of warning. NWS DVN issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:52 UTC, 4 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:15 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:00 UTC and running to 01:50 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:00 UTC01:50 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchDVN
23:08 UTC00:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDVN
23:43 UTC00:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDVN
23:52 UTC00:15 UTCTornado WarningDVN

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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:44 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.

Davenport, (KDVN), 12:00Z

11.9 hours before the tornado, 120 km from the path. June 13, 2024.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Davenport, at 12:00Z on 2024-06-13Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 462 joules per kilogram, CIN -233, lifted condensation level 1343 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Davenport, at 12:00Z on 2024-06-13The 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 308 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 48 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
462 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-233 J/kg
Surface CAPE
225 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1343 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
48 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
308 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
308 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.5
0-3 km lapse rate
4.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Macomb Municipal (MQB), 3 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
22:15 UTC8971.2280° 4 kt1010.5
22:35 UTC87.472.30° 0 kt1009.8
22:55 UTC86740° 0 kt1010.5
23:15 UTC84.277180° 4 kt1010.2-RA
23:35 UTC8474.3110° 6 kt1009.1-RA
23:55 UTC8172.5320° 29 kt451011.2
00:15 UTC7168.420° 15 kt271011.2-RA
00:35 UTC73.469360° 5 kt81012.5-RA
00:55 UTC71.6700° 0 kt1012.5
01:15 UTC71.870220° 5 kt1010.2
01:35 UTC7270.520° 9 kt1011.9
01:55 UTC71.86910° 10 kt1011.9

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

The radar

The Quad Cities radar (KDVN), 119 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:53 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
23:51 UTCTORNADO1 Ssw Macomb MunicipalMcdonough, ILEthan Schisler trained spotter. tornado on ground.
23:53 UTCTORNADO1 E Macomb Municipal ArMcdonough, ILSheriff office reported serval structures damaged, powerline down.
23:56 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 N ScottsburgMcdonough, ILPower pole knocked down from thunderstorm winds. Time estimated from radar.
23:56 UTCTORNADO1 Ese Good HopeMcdonough, ILA brief tornado touchdown was observed by a chaser northeast of the Macomb Municipal Airport. This tornado occurred in an open field and no damage was observed. Therefore the tornado will be rated EF-Unknown.
00:01 UTCTORNADO1 N BardolphMcdonough, ILA brief tornado was observed in an open field between Bushnell and Bardolph. There was no observed damage with the tornado, and therefore has been assigned an EF-Unknown.
00:03 UTCTORNADO2 Nne BardolphMcdonough, ILEthan Schisler tornado on ground 3.7 miles SW Bushnell 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 June 13, 2024

7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 133:05 PM CDTUnratedWichita, KS0.025
June 137:00 PM CDTUnratedMcDonough, IL0.110
June 138:28 PM CDTEF1McLean, IL0.760
June 138:29 PM CDTEF1McLean, IL0.660
June 138:31 PM CDTEF1McLean, IL1.380
June 138:45 PM CDTEF1McLean, IL0.960
June 138:46 PM CDTEF1Ford, IL7.51,300

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.