You are correct, I re-read the article and it was rated a F2. This is all still new to me as it is the first tornado in Springfield since the 50's!
NEWSPAPER ARTICLEWind speeds in excess of 120 mph
By JAYETTE BOLINSKI and AMANDA REAVY
STAFF WRITERS
Published Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Technically, it was two tornadoes with winds of more than 120 mph that were responsible for leveling Springfield homes and businesses Sunday night, the National Weather Service in Lincoln reported Monday night.
The tornadoes tore through the city about 8 p.m. Sunday.
The strength of both was classified as F2, which attain wind speeds of 113 to 157 mph.
"It was a tornado. We had a visual sighting of it approaching the city and also as it went through," said Ed Shimon of the NWS. "It was on the ground causing a tornado or almost causing a tornado all the way from Kansas City. It was an extremely long-lived storm. It would strengthen, have a tornado, and then it would weaken again."
Meteorologists made a preliminary determination that the first Springfield tornado crossed Interstate 72 near milepost 92 about 8:20 p.m. It was on the ground for almost 51/2 miles in a time span of about six minutes, entering the city near Cockrell Lane and Constitution Drive, tracking to the east-northeast. The tornado was about 300 yards wide and damaged several businesses from Constitution to Veterans Parkway and Lindbergh Boulevard.
The tornado widened to about four-tenths of a mile as it continued to track south of Wabash Avenue, between Veterans Parkway and Chatham Road. The twister widened further to just more than half a mile wide from the village of Jerome to Westchester Boulevard, the weather service said.
The tornado then weakened slightly, producing F1 (73 to 112 mph winds) damage as it turned to the northeast. The damage path remained nearly half a mile wide.
The tornado's width decreased to about one-quarter mile as it strengthened again and turned to the north-northeast near Iles Park and the area of Oak and Myrtle streets between Sixth and Ninth streets, blowing roofs off of homes and severely damaging garages and business.
The first tornado dissipated just north of Ninth Street and South Grand Avenue, the weather service said.
A second twister then touched down about 8:25 p.m. a quarter-mile north of Bunn Park, tracking to the northeast and doing the worst of its damage in an area bounded by 15th Street and Cornell, South Grand and Pope avenues.
This tornado, about 300 yards wide, continued to travel northeast across Old Rochester Road, Singer Avenue and Cook Street from White City Boulevard to a block east of Dirksen Parkway, then crossed Interstate 55 at the Clear Lake Avenue interchange, causing damage to mobile homes and overturning a tractor-trailer.
The second tornado, which spent about five minutes on the ground for nearly four miles, dissipated near Old Route 36, about three-quarters of a mile southwest of the village of Clear Lake, according to the weather service.
In all, 24 central Illinoisans suffered minor injuries during the storm - 19 in Springfield, one in Murrayville in southwest Morgan County and four people who were in a house north of Buffalo.
However, a Springfield man who was feared missing by his neighbors amid the chaos of Sunday night's storm actually died last week, police and a family member confirmed Monday.
A home owned by John L. Hollis in the 700 block of Oak Street was demolished by the storm. Hollis, 64, moved out of the single-story house about six months ago, according to his sister, Nancy Huston. He died of cancer Wednesday at Memorial Medical Center.
Hollis' neighbors, apparently unaware that he no longer lived there, alerted authorities after realizing they had not heard from him. Police scoured the rubble and came up empty.
Springfield's tornadoes were part of a storm system that generated about 20 tornadoes as it traveled through Missouri, where it killed nine people, and Illinois. Shimon said it was the biggest storm to pass through central Illinois in years, and it easily could have spawned an even worse tornado had conditions been right.
"The winds were right for it in terms of speed and direction ... but there wasn't enough instability to stretch that rotation as violently as some other storm systems have in the past," he said. "That was the missing link that probably would have made the storm that went through Springfield an F5" - the strongest of tornadoes.
Springfield, Sherman and Jacksonville all received more than 2 inches of rain by 7 a.m. Monday. Communities throughout the area also were pummeled with hail.
In the 24 hours between 7 a.m. Sunday and 7 a.m. Monday, the temperature in Springfield went from a high of 70 degrees to a low of 45 degrees.
Local law enforcement agencies were deployed overnight and throughout Monday to reroute traffic, shoo away gawkers and help those who needed it.
Sangamon County sheriff's Capt. Jeff Berkler said Monday morning members of the department's Tactical Response Unit were providing perimeter security around Jerome, which suffered some of the worst damage. Many people had volunteered to help, but officials were asking them to sit tight, Berkler said.
"Right now, we're just asking them to stay in their homes because we've got a lot of downed power lines and trees," he said. "There's a lot of sheet metal ripped off buildings that's still blowing around. We've got some wind, and it could cause some serious injuries if that hits you. And a lot of structures are still very unsafe and unsound."
Sheriff Neil Williamson, who drove around the county to assess damage Monday, said one of the most unusual things he saw was a dead hog, in the middle of a barren field, that looked as if it had been lifted up by the tornado and dropped there. Silos and farm buildings were "toppled like dominos."
Despite the heavy damage, he said, people were upbeat.
"Actually, it's amazing," Williamson said. "I've talked to a lot of people in Jerome and out in the county, and you would think they would be devastated by the destruction, but I think they realize they're lucky they're alive."
Jayette Bolinski can be reached at 788-1530 or
[email protected]. Amanda Reavy can be reached at 788-1525 or
[email protected].