EF3 Tornado — Menard, Illinois

2010-12-31 · near Lincns New Salem St, Menard, Illinois

Event narrative

A tornado touched down on the west side of Lake Petersburg at 12:37 PM CST, then tracked northeast over the lake and across Sunny Acres Road, before lifting southeast of the intersection of Tice Road and Illinois 123 at 12:40 PM CST. A total of 29 homes sustained significant structural damage, four of which could not be repaired. Two barns were also destroyed, and nearly 100 houses and a nursing home had minor damage along the path of the tornado. One person was seriously injured when the tornado caused a large tree limb to fall on their automobile, crushing the car and trapping the occupant.

Wider weather episode

A strong cold front pushed across central Illinois on December 31st, triggering a line of strong to severe thunderstorms. Unseasonably warm and moist air ahead of the front aided in initial storm development, while a strong upper-level disturbance created a highly sheared environment. One of the resulting supercell thunderstorms produced an EF3 tornado that tracked across the Lake Petersburg area in Menard County, creating considerable damage.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (39.9842, -89.8620)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 267414. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.