Damage Survey for the Champaign, Illinois Tornado - 10/24/01

The National Weather Service in Lincoln has determined that the storm that struck
the Champaign area on October 24, 2001  was a small tornado.  Initial reports, from
the damage survey that was done the day after the storm, indicated that the damage
was caused by a downburst of straight line strong winds.  A description of the
damage caused by this storm follows:

A path of damage was noted starting near the intersection of interstates 57 and 74.
An animal hospital suffered minor damage to some free standing brick walls. Moving
northeast from this location a semi-trailer truck  was blown off the interstate near the
above intersection. To the east of the intersection a fabrication business was
destroyed...with the entire building having collapsed and front 30 feet of so of it
pushed back into the rear of the building. Two  occupants were in the building at the
time of the damage. One suffered a broken hand and cuts to the same hand. The other
was unharmed. Another building immediately behind this one was severely damaged.
A couple of hundred  yards along the same path... damage was reported in a nearby
subdivision...where a house...on the leading edge of an open field...suffered severe
damage to a kitchen area. Other houses along the same line suffered only minor roof
damage...with the exception of one house having the back of its roof ripped off.  

Since the time of the initial survey, the staff at Lincoln has collected additional
information on the event.  Information was received from local TV media, county
ESDA officials, spotters, and an eye witness to the event.  Videotape of the damage
was examined. A mapping of the damage reports was estimated to determine the
exact track of the storm.  Finally, all this information was compared to a detailed
image-by- image play back of the WSR-88D NWS Doppler Weather Radar data from
the Lincoln office.  

The conclusion of this investigation is that a small, F1 tornado (on the Fujita scale)
hit the northwest corner of Champaign.   The path of the tornado was estimated at 2
miles in length and 1/4 mile wide.  

Ernest Goetsch - Meteorologist in Charge
Brad Ketcham - Meteorologist 
Lonnie Fisher - Meteorologist