EFU Tornado — Monroe, Illinois

2023-04-15 · near Columbia Gebhardt Ar, Monroe, Illinois

Event narrative

A tornado briefly touched down in the Mississippi river bottoms on the northwest side of Columbia, IL. The only evidence of this tornado was a video provided via local media. Duration was likely less than 1 minute, no damage or injuries. The tornado was rated EFU with an estimated path length of 0.34 miles and an estimated path width of 25 yards.

Wider weather episode

Several strong to severe thunderstorms moved into eastern Missouri in the afternoon hours of April 15th. These storms were initially producing copious large hail, but rapidly transitioned into tornadic storms. The first tornado was associated with a supercell ahead of a congealing line of convection moving rapidly toward the Mississippi River. A portion of this line of storms rapidly surged eastward, resulting in numerous tornadoes in Jefferson county in Missouri, and Monroe, Madison, St. Clair, and Washington counties in Illinois. In total, 12 tornadoes have been identified, including 3 EF-1s, 6 EF-0s, and 3 tornadoes of unknown intensity that produced no damage.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (38.4540, -90.2330)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1093839. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.