EF1 Tornado — Rock Island, Illinois

2024-07-15 · near East Moline, Rock Island, Illinois

Event narrative

Nearly continuous damage was surveyed consistent with a tornado producing 85-100 mph winds. In Davenport, Iowa, damage occurred to dozens of large trees, including several large healthy snapped trees. Some trees fell on homes and at least one on a car. A large section of an apartment roof was also torn off. Damage in Scott County Iowa was rated EF1 with maximum winds around 100 mph. The tornado crossed the Mississippi River and moved into Rock Island County Illinois along River Drive in East Moline, around 18:28 CST. The tornado snapped some tree trunks before dissipating around 18:32 CST. The tornado was also rated EF-1 in Rock Island County, with maximum winds around 90 mph.

Wider weather episode

Thunderstorms rapidly developed over northern Iowa during the afternoon and organized into a powerful line of wind producing storms that surged through the Quad Cities and into northern and central Illinois through the evening hours. These storms brought widespread damaging winds up to 100 mph for many locations, extending across eastern Iowa, much of Illinois, and into Indiana. The Storm Prediction Center has classified this event as a Derecho which by definition is a swath of wind damage at least 400 miles long and at least 60 miles wide including several well-separated significant wind gusts over 75 mph. Corridors of significant wind damage occurred along Highway 20. 10 tornadoes also occurred with these storms in the NWS Quad Cities service area.

In addition to the wind, very heavy rainfall fell in a short amount of time with many locations seeing over an inch. The highest totals fell in McDonough and Warren counties in Illinois where amounts between 2 and 3 inches fell.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (41.5180, -90.4910)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1204472. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.