EF2 tornado in Coles County, Illinois

This tornado crossed from Moultrie County into western Coles County just south of Western Avenue at 9:58 PM CST. Several houses and outbuildings were damaged in western Coles County...from west of Mattoon to northeast of Mattoon. The most

significant damage included a one-story brick house that had it's roof entirely removed and 2 large metal storage buildings that sustained roof, siding, and metal support structure damage. The tornado lifted about 4 miles north-northeast of Mattoon at 10:04 PM.

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.