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EF1 tornado in Pike County, Illinois

Tornado December 1, 2018 · Pike County, Illinois

EF1
Rating
0.6 mi
Path length
110 yd
Path width
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 110 yards (0.06 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

The tornado began about 1 mile NNW of Valley City, IL. Along County Highway 21, trees were uprooted and a mobile home lost its roof and sustained wall damage. The tornado continued to the northeast, crossing County Highway 21 twice, before lifting. Along this path there was significant tree damage along the east side of Highway 21. Overall, the tornado was rated EF1 with a path length of 0.6 miles and a max path width of 110 yards. No injuries or deaths were reported with this tornado.

The wider storm

By late morning much of the rain shifted north and east of forecast area allowing partial

clearing to destabilize the atmosphere. Steep lapse rates due to relatively cold mid level temperatures southeast of the upper level low combined with strong low-mid level wind shear due to an 80-kt mid level wind max southeast of the upper level low. This led to the development of isolated low topped supercells along the northward moving warm front and ahead of the eastward moving cold front. Eight tornadoes were surveyed over WFO LSX's forecast area.

Began near Valley City (39.7272, -90.6537).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 788454. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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