EF3 Tornado — Madison, Illinois

2021-12-10 · near Mitchell, Madison, Illinois

Event narrative

The tornado began on the south side of I-270 around three-quarters of a mile west of the I-270/I-255 interchange at 8:27 PM CST. Damage in this area consisted of several downed highway signs and a bent light pole. The tornado moved northeast and intensified rapidly after crossing I-255, striking an Amazon warehouse. The west-facing walls of the warehouse collapsed inward, which was followed by multiple structural failures as the tornado moved through the complex, including the collapse of additional walls and the loss of a large segment of the roof. This was the worst damage along the entire tornado track rated EF-3. Cars in the rear of the building were strewn eastward and power lines and several large high tension towers were also destroyed. There was one person injured and 6 fatalities at the Amazon facility. The tornado weakened as it moved northeast across Sand Road, where it destroyed an unanchored mobile home and an outbuilding, snapped trees, and downed power poles. Damage in this area was rated EF-1. Further northeast, the tornado crossed South University Drive where it snapped a power pole and downed additional trees. It then crossed into the Sunset Hills Country Club subdivision. Throughout a portion of the subdivision, there were downed trees, snapped branches, and superficial home damage consisting of missing shingles or small portions of roof covering. The tornado weakened further as it moved northeast, and lifted just west of Butler Boulevard at 8:35 PM CST. Noteworthy is debris from the Amazon warehouse was found along the entire track of this storm, tens of miles to the northeast of the warehouse. Overall, the tornado was rated EF3 with a path length of 4.22 miles and max path width of 300 yards. Six deaths and one injured were reported.

Wider weather episode

Numerous severe thunderstorms formed ahead of an approaching cold front during the late afternoon and evening of Friday December 10th, 2021. Large hail, damaging winds and five tornadoes occurred across central and eastern Missouri as well as south central Illinois. Unfortunately two of the tornadoes were very strong (rated EF-3 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale) and responsible for 7 fatalities (one near Defiance, Missouri and six at an Amazon Facility near Edwardsville, Illinois). The Defiance, MO tornado tracked within one mile of the NWS St. Louis office in the Missouri Research Park near Weldon Spring, MO leading to the staff sheltering while NWS Kansas City provided service backup. This is only the third time in the office's existence that the staff had to shelter. The damage from the Defiance, MO EF3 tornado was estimated at $684,186 and is unknown for the remaining tracks at this time but early estimates are well into the millions due to the damage sustained at the Amazon facility near Edwardsville, IL.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (38.7570, -90.0580)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 996712. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.