EF0 tornado in Macoupin County, Illinois

Tornado November 17, 2013 · Macoupin County, Illinois

EF0

Rating

4.0 mi

Whole path

20 yd

Path width

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 20 yards (0.01 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 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

Despite photographic evidence of a large tornado northwest of Litchfield, only minor damage to power poles and one barn was observed. The tornado initially touched down in Macoupin County on Litchfield Road about 1.3 miles west of the Macoupin/Montgomery county line. It travelled to the northeast only causing minor tree damage rated EF0 in Macoupin County. It then crossed the Macoupin/Montgomery county line about four tenths of a mile south of North 18th Avenue. Most of the area where the tornado occurred was bare farm fields which did not have any damage indicators. The path length of the tornado in Macoupin County was 2.11 miles with a max path width of 20 yards. The damage for this segment was estimated to be EF0. Overall, the entire tornado path length was 3.98 miles with a max path width of 50 yards and a maximum damage rating of EF0.

The wider storm

Strong cold front moved through the region with plenty of lift, moisture and instability. Numerous severe storms developed and raced east across forecast area. There were numerous reports of large hail, damaging winds and tornadoes. Also, because of a tight gradient with this system non-thunderstorm winds gusted in excess of 40 mph in a number of locations.

Began near Womac (39.2346, -89.7255).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF4 Washington County 2 dead EF2 Fayette County EF1 Clinton County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 482454. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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