EF1 tornado in Gallatin County, Illinois

A brief EF-1 tornado occurred in eastern Gallatin County during the early morning hours of Tuesday, April 2nd. The tornado began about five miles east of Ridgway along Maloney Road. A couple of large farm outbuildings had significant portions of their roofs removed, with debris tossed hundreds of feet. A cattle feed barn was knocked down. One home on Maloney Road suffered shingle damage. After crossing Big Hill Road, the tornado lifted just west of the intersection of Hulda Lake Road and Sand Road. Several trees along the path were uprooted or had large limbs broken. Peak winds were estimated at 95 mph.

Early morning, the surface low was located just north of St. Louis, Missouri, lifting to the NNE as it rapidly deepened. For Southern Illinois, early morning effective bulk shear was 60-65 kts, with a very high 20-30 kts of 0-1 km shear, while SRHs near the Ohio River were around 150-200 m2/s2. MLCAPE was 1000 J/kg, and mid-level lapse rates were 6.5 C/km. A 70-90 kt mid-level jet was west of the Quad State. A strong capping inversion suppressed storm activity in the evening, but the strong lift and upper level diffluence won out early morning. Two lines of storms developed after midnight in Southeast Missouri. The first progressed through the I-64 corridor from 0100-0400 CST. The latter was a very potent thunderstorm line racing eastward early morning April 2nd. This line continued throughout the day all the way to West Virginia, being designated a derecho. For Southern Illinois, widespread wind damage occurred with this line, and sections of the line that took a north-south orientation had a much more favorable line-normal component of shear promoting QLCS tornado development. Seven tornadoes originated in Southern Illinois: 2 in Williamson County (EF-2 and EF-1), 1 in Saline County (EF-2), 3 in Gallatin County (all EF-1s), and 1 in White County (EF-2 with the EF-2 damage in Posey County Indiana). Two people suffered laceration injuries due to flying debris with the Saline County tornado. A total of 19 tornadoes were found during this event, the highest single day total for the NWS Paducah forecast area since Halloween 2003 (also 19).