2004 Roanoke tornado

Roanoke, Illinois Tornado
Aftermath at the Parsons Company manufacturing plant.
Date:	July 13, 2004
Time:	c. 2:30 pm CDT
Rating:	F4 tornado
Damages:
Casualties:	0
Area affected:	near Roanoke, Illinois

The 2004 Roanoke tornado was a powerful tornado that formed outside of Roanoke, a small town in central Illinois. On Tuesday, July 13, 2004, at about 2:30 PM, a tornado with a maximum reported width of a quarter mile (0.4 km) struck west of the village of Roanoke, damaging much of the area and cutting power to the main town of Roanoke for three days. It was later rated as an F4 on the Fujita scale. The tornado started approximately 1.8 mi (3 km) north of Metamora, located eight miles (12.8 km) west of Roanoke, and lifted approximately 2.5 mi (4 km) southeast of Roanoke. The tornado moved roughly southeasterly for a distance of 9.6 miles (15.4 kilometers) over about 25 minutes, making it a long-lived tornado.

The worst damage was the destruction of the Parsons Company manufacturing plant, a parts supplier for Caterpillar Inc., parts of which was leveled with the entire plant losing its roof and outer walls. Although about 140 people were inside the building when the tornado struck, there were no fatalities and only a few minor injuries. This was attributed to preparations made during the construction of the plant and spotter training given to some of the workers. Although no tornado sirens were heard at the plant before the tornado struck, an alarm sounded by one of the spotters allowed all the workers to move to storm shelters and ride out the storm.

Damage outside the plant was also extreme. Many of the employees' cars were picked up and tossed into nearby cornfields. Three neighboring farmsteads were completely swept away, with only debris remaining in the basements. This type of damage, in addition to large steal beams from the Parson's plant being blown approximately 3/4 mile (1.2 km) away, resulted in the National Weather Service's violent category F4 classification.

Tornado hitting Parsons plant (Scott Smith via NWS)

Two local residents chased the tornado for much of its 23-minute duration. They produced a half-hour long video that was sold in the Peoria area to help raise funds for employees of the Parsons plant, most of whom had lost their cars and were either underinsured or not insured.

The storm was an example of how structural planning, storm spotting, and awareness techniques can be used by companies. The plant owner's decision to include storm shelters in the building's design likely saved the lives of many employees. Just as important, the early notice provided by the company storm-spotters allowed employees to reach the shelters before the storm struck. The Parsons plant reopened in April 2005 with seven tornado shelters, five more than the original plant.

The Roanoke tornado was the most significant tornado of a small tornado outbreak which transitioned into a destructive derecho over an extensive area of the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys extending to the Gulf of Mexico. The Roanoke 2004 Tornado was featured on The Weather Channel's Storm Stories and Full Force Nature.

Confirmed Total	Confirmed F0	Confirmed F1	Confirmed F2	Confirmed F3	Confirmed F4	Confirmed F5
4	3	0	0	0	1	0

See also

• List of North American tornadoes and tornado outbreaks
• List of derecho events
• Tornadoes of 2004

External links

• Roanoke F4 Tornado of July 13, 2004 (NWS Central Illinois)
• Supercell of July 13, 2004 (NWS Chicago)
• Preliminary Review of WSR-88D Radar Signatures seen in the F0 & F1 Central IL Tornadoes during the Record Setting 2003 Tornado Season (James Auten & Ernest Goetsch ~ NWS Central Illinois)
• The July 13, 2004 Tornado Event: Analysis of Tornadogenesis in a Highly Unstable Environment (Ed Shimon, Pat Bak & Kirk Huettl ~ NWS Central Illinois)
• The July 13, 2004 Tornado Event: The Contributions of Evolving Paradigms & Human Factors in the Warning Process (Lyle Barker ~ NWS Central Illinois)
• The July 13, 2004 Roanoke Illinois Tornado Event: The Warning Response Process at the Parsons Plant (Chris Miller ~ NWS Central Illinois)
• {http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3669229307285179970&ei=_ZFvScGaEo3I-gGSnPm0BQ&q=roanoke%2C+il+tornado] Actual footage