EF2 Tornado — Christian, Illinois

2023-08-06 · near Sicily, Christian, Illinois

Event narrative

This tornado crossed from Sangamon County into far western Christian County just north of the intersection of Pawnee-New City Road and Skaggs Road at 6:13 PM CDT. It continued east-southeastward across Sangchris Lake, damaging a home near the lakeshore and causing extensive tree damage before passing just north of Tovey and Kincaid. The tornado crossed Route 29 southeast of Sharpsburg and tracked over mainly open fields between Routes 29 and 48. It then strengthened and caused EF-2 damage 2 miles south of Willeys along 1600 East Road just south of 1600 North Road where it demolished about 2/3 of a house. The tornado continued east-southeastward, then dissipated near North 2300 East Road about a half mile north of 1500 North Road at 7:03 PM CDT.

Wider weather episode

A vigorous short-wave trough interacted with an approaching low pressure system and associated warm frontal boundary to trigger clusters of strong to severe thunderstorms across west-central Illinois during the late afternoon of August 6th. Due to enhanced low-level wind shear along and north of the warm front, many of the cells began rotating and spinning up occasional funnel clouds. One of the cells intensified as it pushed into Sangamon County, producing a long-track tornado that was on the ground for over 25 miles from just north of Pawnee in far southeastern Sangamon County to southeast of Stonington in Christian County. The tornado produced EF-1 damage along much of its path, peaking with EF-2 damage just south of Willeys in Christian County. This particular thunderstorm cell dropped 2-inch diameter hail north of Taylorville and went on to produce a downburst with 80 mph wind gusts in far eastern Shelby County near Lake Mattoon. The storms eventually congealed into a line as they pushed into eastern Illinois later in the evening, with scattered wind damage, hail, and flash flooding.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (39.6320, -89.5349)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1130550. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.