EF3 Tornado — Massac, Illinois

2013-11-17 · near Brookport, Massac, Illinois

Event narrative

The tornado crossed the Ohio River from McCracken County, Kentucky into Massac County, Illinois. Video of the tornado taken by a barge operator as it crossed the Ohio River indicated it was completely rain-wrapped. This long-track tornado attained its peak intensity as it came onshore into Brookport, a small community along the Ohio River. Peak winds here were estimated near 145 mph. About a half dozen mobile homes were obliterated. Dozens of mobile homes were destroyed, many of which were blown 100 feet or more. Three mobile home residents were killed. A 62-year-old woman died at a local hospital within hours of sustaining blunt force trauma injuries in the tornado. A 58-year-old woman died at her residence as a result of blunt force trauma injuries. A 56-year-old man also died of blunt force trauma injuries sustained at his residence. An exact injury count was unavailable, but local hospitals reported over two dozen injuries. The Metropolis hospital reported 15 victims were brought to the emergency room, with no patient admissions. Three patients were transferred to other hospitals by air or ambulance. Injuries ranged from cuts and scrapes to broken bones and head injuries. One home was leveled. Dozens of homes, garages, storage buildings, businesses, and other buildings were structurally damaged. Emergency management officials reported 233 residences were affected from Brookport east to the Pope County line. 130 of those homes were habitable with minor to moderate damage, 27 were uninhabitable, and 76 homes were destroyed. 184 were located in the city of Brookport, and 49 were outside the city limits. Several cars and a school bus were tossed around. Hundreds if not thousands of trees were snapped and uprooted. The tornado caused some minor damage to guard rails on the Ohio River bridge that carries traffic from Paducah to Brookport on U.S. Highway 45. The tornado continued east along Unionville Road, eventually crossing into Pope County. The total path length of this tornado was 42 miles. The parent supercell tracked from southeast Missouri across the Mississippi River through the Paducah area, then east to the Kentucky Lake area of western Kentucky.

Wider weather episode

Supercell thunderstorms developed along a pre-frontal low pressure trough over Missouri and then moved east across southern Illinois. Very strong wind fields coupled with moderate amounts of instability resulted in several supercell thunderstorms, some of which produced tornadoes. The storms moved through the warm sector of a low pressure system characterized by mixed-layer capes around 1000 j/kg. Southerly surface winds transported rich low-level moisture north of the Ohio River, with dew points in the mid 60's. Areas of partial sunshine immediately preceding the convection bolstered instability. The low level wind shear was very strong, with 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity at or above 500. Strong southerly surface winds ahead of the storms gusted to around 45 mph from Mount Vernon to Carbondale during the midday hours.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.1246, -88.6368)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 480989. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.