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EF3 tornado in Madison County, Illinois

Tornado May 31, 2013 · Madison County, Illinois

EF3
Rating
10.6 mi
Whole path
150 yd
Path width

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through St. Louis County, Missouri → Madison County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 150 yards (0.09 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF3 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF3 is severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, consistent with estimated gusts of 136–165 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 crossed the Mississippi River from St. Louis County Missouri into Madison County Illinois, about 1.1 miles northwest of the intersection of Illinois Routes 3 and 203. It blew down several trees once it made landfall. As it traveled to the east northeast, it took about a quarter of the roof off of a business on the northwest corner of the intersection of Illinois Route 3 and Piasa Lane. On the east side of Illinois Route 3, a gas station sustained minor damage. Damage in this area was rated EF1. Further northeast, several power poles were snapped along S. Delmar Avenue. Just south of the intersection of Robbins Road and Illinois Route 111, 5 large wooden power poles were snapped and there was a convergent pattern in the tree damage to the north. As it crossed the far southern portions of South Roxana, there was minor damage to several homes, then the tornado crossed Highway 255. It buckled in a wall on a large steel framework building and twisted the roof steel girders just south of Old Alton Edwardsville Road, about a quarter of a mile east of the intersection of Old Alton Edwardsville Road and Section Line Road. On the same property, another very large and well-built wood framed metal sided storage building was completely destroyed by the tornado. Damage was rated EF3 in this location. The tornado continued to the northeast crossing Illinois Route 143 just north of the intersection with N. University Dr. Before lifting and dissipating, the tornado crossed Illinois Route 159, just south of Fox Creek Golf Club and snapped off several large fir trees as well as a wooden power pole. The tornado path length in Madison County was 8.6 miles with a max path width of 150 yards. The damage in this segment was rated EF3 with max wind speeds of 160 MPH. Overall, the entire tornado path length was 10.6 miles with a max path width of 150 yards. The tornado was rated EF3 with max wind speeds of 160 MPH.

The wider storm

Storms developed along an outflow boundary that was laid out along the I-70 corridor. The storms produced wind damage, large hail as well as 9 tornadoes. Two of the tornadoes were rated EF3 as they moved through the St. Louis metro area.

Began near Oldenburg (38.8131, -90.1155).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 461887. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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