EF1 tornado, Frogtown to Fairman, Illinois, May 26, 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

May 26, 2024

Touchdown

6:50 PM CDT (23:50 UTC)

Lifted

7:07 PM CDT (00:07 UTC)

On the ground

17 minutes

Path length

18.5 miles (29.8 km)

Path width

325 yards (297 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$123,000

Counties

Clinton and Marion counties

Touchdown point

38.665, -89.460

Lift-off point

38.683, -89.124

Record number

2405261750-01

13 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LSX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 97 mph.

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

During the afternoon and early evening of May 26, 2024, ten tornadoes touched down in the St. Louis metropolitan area and southwest Illinois from a mix of supercells and QLCS modes. This occurred alongside numerous reports of large hail of up to 2.5 inches in diameter and damaging winds of up to 81 mph. Thankfully, there were no reported injuries or fatalities with these thunderstorms.

A tornado touched down north of Carlyle and tracked eastward significantly damaging a garage and shed, removing portions of a roof on a home, and breaking large branches off of trees. This tornado continued on the east side of the Carlyle Lake, where there were reports and photos of power lines down, multiple trees down, at least partial removal of a house's roof, a barn destroyed, and the majority of another barn's roof removed. The tornado was rated EF1 in Clinton County with a path length of 17.64 miles and a max path width of 325 yards. No deaths or injuries were reported.

The damage survey was not completed on the east side of Carlyle Lake including the portion of the track in Marion County. The survey relies on the support of subsequent reports until the tornado was suspected to have lifted just west of Hwy 51 north of Fairman where a small barn or farm outbuilding sustained major loss of its roof panels. The tornado was rated an EF1 in Marion County with a path length of 0.86 miles and a max path width of 25 yards. No deaths or injuries were reported. Overall, the tornado was rated EF1 with a path length of 18.5 miles and a max path width of 325 yards.

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

12 minutes of warning. NWS LSX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:38 UTC, 12 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:20 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:05 UTC and running to 00:50 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 20:20 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.

The St Louis radar (KLSX), 121 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:47 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

69 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 70 of them

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.