EF2 tornado in Wayne County, Illinois

This tornado touched down on the southwest side of Sims. It quickly intensified and destroyed a double wide mobile home on the northeast side of Sims. The tornado continued northeast and crossed Highway 15, producing tree and power pole damage. The tornado moved east across the Wayne County landfill, damaging the building on the grounds. The tornado continued into the north side of Fairfield, producing mainly minor damage to homes. Peak winds in this tornado were estimated near 135 mph. The maximum intensity was on the northeast side of Sims.

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.