EF2 tornado in Madison County, Illinois

Tornado April 22, 2011 · Madison County, Illinois

EF2

Rating

18.2 mi

Whole path

700 yd

Path width

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 700 yards (0.40 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

The tornado first touched down 3 miles southwest of Highland in Madison County, just to the east of Bluemound Road around 855 pm. It quickly moved east snapping and uprooting trees. Just before reaching Illinois Route 160, it destroyed a large metal farm building and carried the metal panels about a mile downwind. On Old Trenton Road, it snapped three wooden power poles and snapped trees and caused minor damage to a barn roof on a farmstead. As it continued to move east it widened to 700 yards as it passed south of Highland. It caused significant damage to trees, power poles and farm outbuildings in addition to minor roof damage. Near the intersection of St. Rose Road and Iberg Road, extensive tree damage occurred with one tree falling on a home and a second falling on a prefabricated carport. The tornado continued to move east causing varying degrees of damage to five homes in a subdivision just north of St. Rose Road. The tornado then moved across Waage Road blowing out multiple windows of a farm house and destroying a large metal shed. The tornado then crossed Baumann Road into Clinton County. The maximum intensity for this segment was rated EF2 and was on the ground for 6.5 miles before crossing into Clinton County. The maximum width of damage was 700 yards. As for the entire tornado, it was rated EF2, with maximum wind speeds of 130 mph. The maximum width of the tornado was 700 yards and the total length of the tornado was 18.2 miles.

The wider storm

A strong cold front moved through region. With plenty of moisture, instability and decent low level shear, severe storms developed along the Interstate 70 corridor in Missouri and Illinois. Numerous reports of large hail and 5 tornadoes occurred with this event. One of the tornadoes was a long track one that moved through the St. Louis metropolitan area with it being rated an EF4, with only a few minor injuries and no deaths. Also, quite a bit of rain fell during this event and caused flash flooding. The flash flooding persisted for several days as additional rounds of heavy rain fell over the same region through the 26th of April.

Began near St Morgan (38.7034, -89.7144).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF4 Madison County EF2 Monroe County EF1 St. Clair County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 317867. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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