January 3, 2023: Rare January Tornado Near Gibson City, IL

Fast Facts

• On Tuesday, January 3, nine tornadoes occurred in central Illinois. Eight of these occurred in the NWS Central Illinois forecast area, and one of the tornadoes (the northernmost one) occurred near the community of Gibson City in Ford County in the NWS Chicago forecast area.
  • More information about the eight tornadoes in the NWS Central Illinois forecast area can be found here. 

• The tornado near Gibson City touched down at 5:56 PM CST, was rated as an EF-1 with maximum estimated winds of 100 mph, and continued for a path of nearly 3 miles before lifting at 6:02 PM. 

• A Tornado Warning was issued for southwestern Ford County at 5:46 PM CST and another Tornado Warning was issued at 6:19 PM for areas further downstream in central Ford County and west central Iroquois County. 

• The Gibson City area tornado and the others in central Illinois were spawned from mini supercell thunderstorms, which, by definition, are rotating thunderstorms often capable of producing severe weather.

• The environment had a couple of key aspects that were favorable for supercell storms: 1.) modest wind shear (increasing wind speed with height and some turning in direction), and 2.) a strong warm front present that ushered in anomalously high low-level warmth and moisture for January.

Climatology

NWS Chicago Forecast Area (map)

• Since 1950, this was only the fourth tornado to occur in the NWS Chicago forecast area in the month of January, with the other three being:
  • January 25, 1950: F-2 rated tornado in Momence in Kankakee County
  • January 7, 2008: EF-3 rated tornado near Poplar Grove (Boone County) and Harvard (McHenry County)
  • January 18, 2019: EF-U rated inland waterspout over the Dresden cooling pond in western Will County

• The first two of those events featured similar temperatures (in the mid 60s) to what was observed on Tuesday near Gibson City. In fact, Chicago set its all time record high temperature for the month of January with a temperature of 67° on the date of the 1950 Momence tornado.

• The two Tornado Warnings issued were only the 3rd and 4th issued by NWS Chicago in the month of January since 1992, with the other two being on January 7, 2008. There have been 23 Severe Thunderstorm Warnings issued by NWS Chicago in January during that time, with the most recent being in 2013.

• Wintertime (December-February) tornadoes are rare as far north as the NWS Chicago forecast area, although one did occur last winter: an EF-0 tornado in Lake County, Indiana on December 10, 2021 (same day as a strong tornado in Edwardsville, IL and multiple other strong/violent tornadoes in the Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys).  

• Breakdown of severe weather and tornadoes by month in the NWS Chicago forecast area:

(click on image to enlarge)		(click on image to enlarge)

• More on local area severe weather climatology can be found on our Severe Weather Climatology Web Page.

Illinois

• This event's tornadoes were the first January tornadoes in the state of Illinois since January 11, 2020, when an EF-1 occurred near the town of Ware in Union County in southern Illinois.

• The nine tornadoes that occurred on January 3, 2023 are the most to occur on a January date in the state of Illinois in decades, surpassing the eight tornadoes that occurred on January 7, 1989.

Tornado

Public Information Statement
National Weather Service Chicago IL
247 PM CST Wed Jan 4 2023 /347 PM EST Wed Jan 4 2023/

...NWS Damage Survey for 01/03/23 Gibson City Tornado...

.Gibson City Tornado...

Rating:                 EF-1
Estimated Peak Wind:    100 mph
Path Length /statute/:  2.9 miles
Path Width /maximum/:   25 yards
Fatalities:             0
Injuries:               0

Start Date:             01/03/23
Start Time:             05:56 PM CST
End Location:           3 S Gibson City / Ford County / IL
Start Lat/Lon:          40.4219 / -88.2669

Start Date:             01/03/23
End Time:               06:02 PM CST
End Location:           2 ESE Gibson City / Ford County / IL
End Lat/Lon:            40.4490 / -88.3243

Survey Summary:
A National Weather Service damage survey found that an EF-1
tornado occurred near Gibson City, IL on the evening of January 3,
2023. The tornado touched down in an open field east of State
Route 47 where it proceeded to track northeast for 2.9 miles
causing damage to two homesteads before dissipating in a field
east of 700 East Road. Both homesteads sustained roof damage to
the residences in addition to damage to outbuildings. The northern
most property sustained total destruction of their pole barn with
debris thrown northeastward into a nearby field, which is
consistent with 100 mph wind rating.

&&

EF Scale: The Enhanced Fujita Scale classifies tornadoes into the
following categories:

EF0...Weak......65 to 85 mph
EF1...Weak......86 to 110 mph
EF2...Strong....111 to 135 mph
EF3...Strong....136 to 165 mph
EF4...Violent...166 to 200 mph
EF5...Violent...>200 mph

NOTE:
The information in this statement is preliminary and subject to
change pending final review of the event and publication in NWS
Storm Data.

$$

Storm Reports and Photos

National Storm Reports for January 3, 2023 Interactive Storm Report Map

Hail in Elgin, IL. Courtesy of Antonio Rios.	Tornado damage southeast of Gibson City. From NWS storm survey.	Tornado damage southeast of Gibson City. From NWS storm survey.

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0214 PM     HAIL             1 NE ELGIN              42.05N 88.27W
01/03/2023  M1.00 INCH       KANE               IL   TRAINED SPOTTER

            MOST HAILSTONES WERE HALF AN INCH OR LESS IN
            DIAMETER, BUT PHOTOS SHOW THAT THE LARGEST
            HAILSTONES WERE ROUGHLY ONE INCH IN
            DIAMETER.

0215 PM     HAIL             1 N ELGIN               42.06N 88.28W
01/03/2023  U0.50 INCH       KANE               IL   PUBLIC

            REPORT FROM MPING: HALF-INCH (0.50 IN.).

0219 PM     HAIL             6 WNW HOFFMAN ESTATES   42.07N 88.22W
01/03/2023  U0.50 INCH       COOK               IL   PUBLIC

            REPORT FROM MPING: HALF-INCH (0.50 IN.).

0230 PM     HAIL             1 N BARRINGTON          42.17N 88.13W
01/03/2023  U0.50 INCH       LAKE               IL   PUBLIC

            REPORT FROM MPING: HALF-INCH (0.50 IN.).

0235 PM     HAIL             PALATINE                42.14N 88.02W
01/03/2023  E0.70 INCH       COOK               IL   TRAINED SPOTTER

            HAIL COATING THE GROUND WITH THE LARGEST
            HAILSTONES APPROXIMATELY DIME SIZED.

0250 PM     HAIL             1 NW NORTH CHICAGO      42.33N 87.86W
01/03/2023  E0.75 INCH       LAKE               IL   PUBLIC

            HAIL COATING THE GROUND WITH THE LARGEST
            HAILSTONES APPROXIMATELY PENNY SIZED.

0253 PM     HAIL             1 SSE WAUKEGAN          42.35N 87.84W
01/03/2023  E1.00 INCH       LAKE               IL   PUBLIC

            PHOTOS SHARED SHOWING HAILSTONES
            APPROXIMATELY ONE INCH IN DIAMETER IN
            WAUKEGAN. TIME AND LOCATION ESTIMATED FROM
            RADAR.

0556 PM     TORNADO          3 SSE GIBSON CITY       40.42N 88.37W
01/03/2023                   FORD               IL   NWS STORM SURVEY

            NWS STORM SURVEY FOUND DAMAGE CONSISTENT
            WITH AN EF1 TORNADO WITH ESTIMATED PEAK
            WINDS OF 100 MPH. DAMAGE INCLUDED LOSS OF
            PORTIONS OF A ROOF DECK ON TWO HOMES AND
            COLLAPSE OF AN OUT BUILDING.

0721 PM     HAIL             1 SE LYNWOOD            41.52N 87.53W
01/03/2023  U0.75 INCH       COOK               IL   TRAINED SPOTTER

            TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR.

Radar

Below is a four-panel loop from the Lincoln, Illinois radar (which was quite a bit closer to this supercell than our radar in Romeoville) which runs from 5:42 PM CST through 6:10 PM CST. Note that there are two velocity products shown: base velocity (top right image) and "storm-relative" velocity (bottom right). Storm-relative velocity removes the storm motion from the base velocity product, which makes it a bit easier to see areas of rotation.

Gibson City Tornado Radar Loop

Start Loop Stop Loop

Additional Information

Links:

• NWS Central Illinois Web Page
• NWS Chicago Past Events Page