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EF2 tornado in Tazewell County, Illinois

Tornado July 16, 2015 · Tazewell County, Illinois

EF2
Rating
2.4 mi
Path length
250 yd
Path width
2
Injuries
$1.2M
Damage as recorded
$10K
Crop damage
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 250 yards (0.14 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 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

A tornado touched down 0.6 miles south of Delavan at 11:39 PM CDT. The tornado then moved east-northeast across the south side of Delavan, damaging 51 homes. 15 of the homes sustained severe damage, including either the roofs being completely torn off or the majority of the roof deck being lifted off. Numerous garages, outbuildings, and trees were damaged. The tornado also crossed through the Prairie Rest Cemetery, damaging grave markers and several trees before dissipating in a cornfield 2.2 miles east-northeast of Delavan at 11:46 PM CDT.

The wider storm

A strong cold front interacting with a highly unstable airmass triggered strong to severe thunderstorms across west-central Illinois during the evening of July 16th. Scattered wind damage and flash flooding occurred mainly west of the I-55 corridor. One of the storms produced a short-lived EF-2 tornado that impacted the town of Delavan in Tazewell County, resulting in numerous homes being damaged and two minor injuries.

Began near Delavan (40.3618, -89.5496).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 593136. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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