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EF0 tornado in Pulaski County, Illinois

Tornado May 25, 2011 · Pulaski County, Illinois

EF0
Rating
19.9 mi
Whole path
80 yd
Path width
$255K
Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 80 yards (0.05 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 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 was very weak as it touched down along the Ohio River. In this area, trees were uprooted, and a few trees were snapped. At a campground east of Grand Chain, several campers were damaged, and one was overturned. Peak winds were estimated near 70 mph. The tornado remained weak as it crossed into Massac County.

The wider storm

Numerous strong to severe thunderstorms occurred in the warm sector of a low pressure system over central Missouri. The air mass in the warm sector was very unstable, with afternoon mixed-layer cape values in the 2500 to 4000 j/kg range. A 65 to 75 knot mid level jet was located across Arkansas, with the nose of the jet moving into western Kentucky. This feature enhanced the lift and strong deep-layer shear already in place, creating an environment very favorable for supercells and tornadoes. A 40 to 55 knot low level jet across eastern Arkansas moved into western Kentucky during the evening, resulting in isolated tornadoes and widespread damaging winds.

Began near New Grand Chain (37.2200, -88.9900).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 301431. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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