Home / Illinois / Wayne

EF2 tornado in Wayne County, Illinois

Tornado March 8, 2009 · Wayne County, Illinois

EF2

Rating

5.6 mi

Whole path

100 yd

Path width

$110K

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Wayne County → Clay County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 100 yards (0.06 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 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

Several structures were damaged. Half of the roof was blown off one house. A well-built storage barn was blown into another house. Debris was blown several hundred yards. Debris from a house impacted a second house 250 yards away. The second house had only minor structural damage. A large metal barn partially caved in when a small grain elevator blew onto it. Peak winds were estimated near 122 mph. The tornado crossed into Clay County.

The wider storm

A strong 500 mb shortwave moved rapidly northeast from the Plains during the day. The shortwave became a closed low over the Great Lakes region by the evening hours. In the lower levels, a strong southwest 850 mb jet from 60 to 65 knots shifted east from the Ozarks across southern Illinois. These features provided sufficient shear and instability for a significant tornado.

Began near Enterprise (38.5634, -88.3500).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF1 Wayne County EF1 Jefferson County EF0 Jefferson County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 155066. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

Tornadoes near your address

See every tornado that passed near a place you know, measured to its path.