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EF1 tornado in Macon County, Illinois

Tornado April 18, 2024 · Macon County, Illinois

EF1
Rating
7.2 mi
Path length
500 yd
Path width
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 500 yards (0.28 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

The tornado began two miles north of Forsyth along east Wise Road, damaging numerous trees around a residence. It progressed eastward, damaging grain bins and six power poles just east of Highway 51 along and north of Wise Road. The tornado continued east along east Wise Road and east Emery Road as it progressed towards Argenta. A semi-truck was blown over on Emery Road near Route 51. Debris was strewn all along the path into the adjacent fields. The tornado eventually dissipated about one mile west of Argenta.

The wider storm

A slow moving frontal system aided the development of supercell thunderstorms by mid-afternoon, which eventually grew upscale into a line segment as they progressed across central and southeastern Illinois during the evening. A total of four tornadoes occurred across Logan and Macon counties in central Illinois. One injury occurred in Logan County when a semi-truck was blown over by one of the tornadoes. In addition to the tornadoes, scattered wind damage also occurred.

Began near Emery (39.9600, -88.9700).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

2 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1166924. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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