EF1 tornado in Vermilion County, Illinois

Tornado December 10, 2021 · Vermilion County, Illinois

EF1

Rating

3.7 mi

Whole path

200 yd

Path width

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 200 yards (0.11 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

This tornado crossed from Edgar County into southeastern Vermilion County at 10:43 PM CST. No additional damage was observed as the tornado quickly lifted about 2 miles east-southeast of Ridge Farm at 10:44 PM CST.

The wider storm

A deepening area of low pressure tracked from near Kansas City during the afternoon of December 10th to southern Lake Michigan by the pre-dawn hours of December 11th. An unseasonably warm and moist airmass surged northward ahead of the system, resulting in high temperatures reaching the lower to middle 60s across central Illinois. As the low and an associated vigorous short-wave trough interacted with the moderately unstable and highly sheared environment, several clusters of strong to severe thunderstorms developed during the late afternoon and evening of the 10th. Numerous rotating cells were observed, with a total of 6 tornadoes touching down across central Illinois. 5 of the tornadoes were rated EF-2, including one that injured a person just north of Herrick in Shelby County.

Began near Ridge Farm (39.8820, -87.6200).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF2 Cass County EF2 Menard County EF2 Shelby County EF2 Shelby County EF1 Coles County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 999869. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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