EF1 tornado, Ballard to Anchor, Illinois, June 13, 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

June 13, 2024

Touchdown

8:45 PM CDT (01:45 UTC)

Lifted

8:46 PM CDT (01:46 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.9 miles (1.5 km)

Path width

60 yards (55 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

McLean County

Touchdown point

40.560, -88.506

Lift-off point

40.560, -88.488

Record number

2406131945-01

77 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ILX and NWS LOT, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 116 mph.

• 6 broken wood poles. Corn leaning over.
• Widespread tree damage, large limbs
• Several pictures received from EM of roofing damage to a home at this address.
• Several pictures of trees with down and broken branches. Pictures also show a damaged silo in this location. Received from EM.

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

A cold front triggered clusters of strong to severe thunderstorms across north-central Illinois during the evening of June 13th into the pre-dawn hours of June 14th. Most of the activity was focused along and north of a Beardstown to Champaign line. Numerous trees and power lines were blown down thanks to 60-70 mph wind gusts, while a few reports of hail as large as quarters were also received. The most significant wind damage occurred across northeastern McLean County from Chenoa and Lexington southeastward through Cropsey and Anchor where a damage survey team determined widespread wind gusts of 80-110 mph as well as 5 tornado touchdowns. A total of 33 high-tension electrical transmission towers were severely damaged as a result of the powerful winds across this area.

A tornado touched down along East 2600 North Road northeast of Lexington at 8:28 PM CDT. The tornado tracked eastward, ripping much of the roof off a farm outbuilding and snapping an antenna and breaking a few windows in a home before quickly dissipating less than a mile east from its initial touchdown at 8:29 PM CDT.

A tornado touched down near the intersection of North 3050 East Road and East 2700 North Road at 8:29 PM CDT. The tornado tracked eastward and destroyed a barn before quickly dissipating less than 1 mile from its initial touchdown at 8:30 PM CDT.

A tornado touched down just south of the intersection of North 3100 East Road and East 2600 North Road at 8:31 PM CDT. The tornado tracked east-southeastward, tearing a significant portion of the roof off a farm outbuilding before quickly dissipating east of North 3200 East Road northeast of Lawndale Cemetery at 8:32 PM CDT.

A tornado touched down just north of East 1900 North Road and west of North 4000 East Road at 8:45 PM CDT. The tornado tracked eastward, destroying a machine shed and throwing debris from the shed a half mile eastward before quickly dissipating at 8:46 PM CDT.

A tornado touched down about 2 miles south of Anchor at 8:46 PM CDT. The tornado tracked southeastward, severely damaging or destroying several farm buildings. It then crossed into the National Weather Service Chicago County Warning Area (CWA) into western Ford County just north of East 1500 North Road at 8:50 PM CDT.

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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:02 UTC and running to 03:00 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 01:00 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.

Bloomington/Norm (BMI), 37 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Lincoln radar (KILX), 85 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:44 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

7 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.