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EF1 tornado in Warren County, Illinois

Tornado March 15, 2016 · Warren County, Illinois

EF1

Rating

16.5 mi

Whole path

400 yd

Path width

$415K

Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 400 yards (0.23 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 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 moved from McDonough County into Warren County west of Prairie City. It traveled northeast across Warren County, affecting mainly farm outbuildings and trees before it moved into Fulton County.

The wider storm

A strong area of low pressure and associated warm front tracked northeast from Missouri into northern Illinois late in the day. Numerous severe thunderstorms developed over the region, bringing large hail, damaging winds, and several tornadoes to the area. The warm front lifting north was a focus area for tornadic supercells.

Began near Walnut Grove (40.6299, -90.5446).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF2 Rock Island County EF0 Whiteside County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 626927. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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