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EF2 tornado in Fayette County, Illinois

Tornado April 3, 2018 · Fayette County, Illinois

EF2
Rating
18.2 mi
Whole path
100 yd
Path width

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 100 yards (0.06 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 strong tornado developed around 7 miles southeast of Vandalia, Illinois around 4:20 PM CDT and traveled northeast to the Fayette/Effingham County line by 4:34 PM CDT. The first tornado damage observed was near the intersection of E1050 Avenue and N1375 Street where a greenhouse lost portions of its roofing material and suffered other minor damage. The tornado continued northeast toward Gatch Lake causing damage to several outbuildings and one single family residence. The width of the tornado increased to nearly 100 yards wide and the strength increased from EF0 to EF1 during this time period. The tornado continued northeast causing mainly tree damage until it reached a farm along E1200 Avenue near N1780 Lane. Here a barn and several silos were destroyed, along with a single wide mobile home. The damage was rated EF2. Thankfully there were no occupants in the mobile home at the time of the tornado. The tornado continued northeast destroying another outbuilding, with the debris being tossed down wind hundreds of yards into the open field. The greatest tornado damage occurred to a residence near the intersection of Illinois Highway 185 and E1250 Avenue. The tornado destroyed their garage, ripped their roof and southeast walls off of their home. This damage was also rated EF2 with winds estimated to be 125 mph. The tornado began to weaken as it moved northeast only causing minor damage to an outbuilding and downing trees in a narrow path, less than a hundred yards wide, to the Fayette/Effingham county line. No injuries or deaths were reported in Fayette County. The tornado continued northeast into Effingham County (WFO Lincoln's forecast area). This segment of the tornado (Fayette County) was rated EF2 with a path length of 10.87 miles and a max path width of 100 yards. The entire tornado was rated EF2. It's path length was 18.27 miles with a max path width of 100 yards.

The wider storm

A strong cold front moved through the region triggering storms. Some of the storms produced severe weather, mainly large hail and an isolated tornado.

Began near Augsburg (38.8877, -88.9976).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 744693. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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