EF1 tornado in Christian County, Illinois

A tornado touched down on the north side of Pana at 12:15 PM CST, then tracked northeastward before lifting 3.1 miles NNE of Pana at 12:18 PM CST. Several homes suffered roof damage near the intersection of Almond and Elm streets on the north side of Pana. Trees were blown down, damaging 3 cars. Numerous power lines were knocked down as well. The tornado moved NNE, damaging a house and destroying an outbuilding before dissipating in an open field.

A powerful low pressure system tracked from the central Rockies toward the southern Great Lakes on November 17th. As the system approached central Illinois, unseasonably warm and humid air was pulled northward into the area, resulting in high temperatures soaring into the 70s. This very unstable airmass coupled with strong jet stream level winds aloft created numerous strong to severe thunderstorms. Many of the storms became supercells, producing damaging long-track tornadoes. A total of 10 tornadoes touched down across central Illinois, including an EF4 tornado that severely impacted the community of Washington in Tazewell County. Three people were killed and 142 others were injured as the storms tracked through the area. Total damage was estimated at 1.06 billion dollars across central Illinois.