Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 2024

Unrated tornado, Adair, Illinois, May 19, 2024

This Unrated tornado ran 0.6 miles across McDonough County on May 19, 2024, touching down at 6:35 PM CDT and reaching 20 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
May 19, 2024
Touchdown
6:35 PM CDT (23:35 UTC)
Lifted
6:40 PM CDT (23:40 UTC)
On the ground
5 minutes
Path length
0.6 miles (1.0 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
McDonough County
Touchdown point
40.440, -90.480
Lift-off point
40.440, -90.470
Record number
2405191735-01

The damage survey

1 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS DVN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry.

  • Pictures and video from social media indicated a landspout tornado in open fields. No damage has been reported.

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

An isolated storm produced a weak tornado in east of Macomb Illinois, before a more widespread line of storms moved east through Iowa into Illinois in the overnight hours. The line of storms brought reports of large hail and damaging wind to portions of the area.

Pictures and video from social media indicated a brief landspout tornado in open fields. No damage has been reported. Times and location estimated.

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 20:00 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 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

11.6 hours before the tornado, 131 km from the path. May 19, 2024.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Davenport, at 12:00Z on 2024-05-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -91944, lifted condensation level 2360 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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, Davenport, at 12:00Z on 2024-05-19The 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 -85 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 18 knots.1939Sfc1 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-91944 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2360 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-85 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-26 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Davenport, (KDVN), 00:00Z

0.4 hours after it, 131 km from the path. May 20, 2024.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Davenport, at 00:00Z on 2024-05-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 65 joules per kilogram, CIN -185, lifted condensation level 2316 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, Davenport, at 00:00Z on 2024-05-20The 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 24 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 33 knots.1939Sfc1 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
65 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-185 J/kg
Surface CAPE
201 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2316 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
24 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
73 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Lincoln radar (KILX), 102 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:34 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
23:35 UTCTORNADO2 Ne AdairMcdonough, ILPictures and video from social media indicated a brief landspout tornado in open fields. No damage has been reported. Times and location estimated.

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 May 19, 2024

31 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 191:12 PM MDTUnratedWashington, CO0.225
May 193:32 PM CDTEF1Russell, KS1.615
May 192:45 PM MDTEF2Logan, CO1.630
May 192:56 PM MDTUnratedLogan, CO0.015
May 194:20 PM CDTEF0Ellsworth, KS0.210
May 193:28 PM MDTUnratedLogan, CO0.225
May 196:19 PM CDTEF0Roger Mills, OK0.230$5,000
May 196:27 PM CDTEF0Roger Mills, OK0.530$5,000
May 196:43 PM CDTEF0Roger Mills, OK1.930$10,000
May 196:47 PM CDTUnratedBarton, KS1.140
May 196:58 PM CDTUnratedCuster, OK0.5100
May 197:28 PM CDTEF2Custer, OK6.71,760$250,000
May 197:39 PM CDTEF1Custer, OK6.7400$150,000
May 198:05 PM CDTEF1Custer, OK5.0440$200,000
May 198:13 PM CDTEF1Custer, OK2.830
May 198:16 PM CDTEF1Marion, KS1.140
May 198:24 PM CDTEF0Caddo, OK1.040$25,000
May 198:37 PM CDTEF1Blaine, OK0.650$5,000
May 198:37 PM CDTEF1Blaine, OK0.550$2,000
May 199:32 PM CDTEF2Canadian, OK3.5300$100,000
May 199:41 PM CDTEF0Canadian, OK1.2300$2,000
May 199:41 PM CDTEF0Canadian, OK2.930$5,000
May 199:44 PM CDTEF0Osage, KS0.740
May 1910:08 PM CDTEF0Shawnee, KS0.125
May 1910:10 PM CDTEF0Oklahoma, OK0.110
May 1910:19 PM CDTEF1Johnson, KS0.975
May 1910:26 PM CDTEF1Leavenworth, KS1.5150
May 1910:31 PM CDTEF1Johnson, KS1.6105
May 1910:39 PM CDTEF1Johnson, KS2.6150
May 1910:53 PM CDTEF1Woods, OK2.7300$10,000
May 1911:01 PM CDTEF1Woods, OK1.540$10,000

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.