EF3 Tornado — Madison, Illinois

2013-05-31 · near Oldenburg, Madison, Illinois

Event narrative

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.

Wider weather episode

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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (38.8131, -90.1155)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 461887. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.