Home / Illinois / Randolph

EF2 tornado in Randolph County, Illinois

Tornado February 28, 2017 · Randolph County, Illinois

EF2

Rating

53.5 mi

Whole path

700 yd

Path width

Death

Injuries

$14.8M

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Perry County, Missouri → Randolph County → Jackson County → Franklin County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 700 yards (0.40 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

The tornado moved out of Perry County (MO-WFO Paducah's forecast area) across the Mississippi River into far southern Randolph County (IL) south of Rockwood. The tornado caused damage to trees and snapped 7 power poles on IL Route 3. It continued to move to the northeast, causing extensive tree damage along Gun Club Road. The damage was rated EF2. The tornado continued northeast into Jackson County (IL) which is serviced by National Weather Service Paducah. This segment of the tornado (Randolph County) was rated EF2 with a path length of 2.94 miles and a max path width of 700 yards. No injuries or deaths were reported in Randolph County. The entire tornado was rated EF4. It's path length was 50 miles with a max path width of 1056 yards (0.6 of a mile). One death and 12 injuries were reported with this tornado.

The wider storm

A severe weather outbreak occurred on February 28th and lasted into the early morning hours of March 1st 2017. Four tornadoes were documented to have occurred in the National Weather Service St. Louis County Warning Area, including a portion of the long track tornado that caused damage north of Perryville, MO. Hail and wind reports were noted with many of the storms.

Began near Rockwood (37.8222, -89.7124).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

1 more tornado the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF1 Brown County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 679706. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

Tornadoes near your address

See every tornado that passed near a place you know, measured to its path.