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EF1 tornado in Fulton County, Illinois

Tornado April 4, 2023 · Fulton County, Illinois

EF1

Rating

30.9 mi

Whole path

200 yd

Path width

Injuries

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through McDonough County → Fulton County → Fulton County → Fulton County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 200 yards (0.11 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

A tornado touched down on the west edge of Table Grove along County Highway 3 at 7:02 PM CDT. It tracked eastward just south of South Street, flattening several garages and causing damage to numerous houses and trees before crossing Rifle Range Road and lifting 1 mile east of Table Grove near East Locust Lane at 7:10 PM CDT.

The wider storm

As a warm front lifted northward, a highly unstable and sheared environment developed across west-central Illinois during the afternoon and evening of April 4th. Despite the favorable parameters, thunderstorm activity was slow to initiate due to the lack of a forcing mechanism and the presence of low-level capping. As a subtle short-wave approached from the west and weakened the cap, a large supercell thunderstorm formed over southern McDonough County then tracked east-northeast across Fulton County. This storm produced a total of 4 tornadoes in Fulton County...including an EF-3 tornado that tracked across the northwest side of Lewistown. Very large hail was reported as well...with the largest stone measuring 4 inches in diameter in the town of Bernadotte.

Began near Table Grove (40.3631, -90.4329).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

1 more tornado the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EFU Fulton County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1093555. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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