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EF2 tornado in Jackson County, Illinois

Tornado February 29, 2012 · Jackson County, Illinois

EF2
Rating
31.9 mi
Whole path
300 yd
Path width
1
Injury
$350K
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Cape Girardeau County, Missouri → Union County → Jackson County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 300 yards (0.17 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 passed into southeast Jackson County from Union County. The tornado was only on the ground for a short time in Jackson County before it lifted. The damage path ended in Giant City State Park. Thousands of trees were snapped or uprooted. Barns and grain bins were destroyed, along with downed power lines. Peak winds were estimated near 115 mph. The average path width was 250 yards.

The wider storm

A squall line with embedded sustained supercells crossed southern Illinois. The embedded supercells raced east-northeast at 60 to 70 mph, while the line moved southeast at a slower rate. The storms strengthened as they encountered richer low-level moisture, with surface dew points around 60 degrees spreading rapidly north-northeastward up the Mississippi Valley. Intense low to mid-level wind fields maintained the intensity of tornadic storms despite weak instability due to lack of solar heating. A south-southwesterly low level jet from 60 to 70 knots veered to west-southwest around 75 knots at 500 mb.

Began near Makanda (37.5978, -89.2188).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF4 Saline County 8 deadEF2 Williamson CountyEF2 Pulaski CountyEF2 Massac County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 359917. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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