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EF1 tornado in Franklin County, Illinois

Tornado June 8, 2009 · Franklin County, Illinois

EF1

Rating

4.8 mi

Whole path

100 yd

Path width

$26K

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Perry County → Franklin 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 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 continued into Franklin County from Perry County. Many trees were blown down. The tornado was embedded within a much broader area of straight-line wind damage to trees. Peak winds were estimated near 85 mph in this portion of the track.

The wider storm

Thunderstorms rapidly developed along a surface frontal boundary from central Illinois into southern Missouri. Extreme instability and favorable wind shear ahead of the activity promoted organized and isolated supercell storms.

Began near Mulkeytown (37.9759, -89.1554).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

1 more tornado the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF0 Perry County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 171899. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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