The National Weather Service in the Quad Cities is reporting that a brief tornado touched down 2 miles southeast of Bushnell on Monday, May 9. A storm chaser reported to the National Weather Service that the tornado touched down at 5:15 PM. The tornado was on the ground for about 2 minutes and was 25-30 yards wide. No damage, injuries, or fatalities were reported with this touchdown. This tornado is currently rated an EF-0 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. Another tornado touched down in Warren county at 5:43 PM. This tornado was also a brief touchdown and that no damage, injuries, or fatalities were reported. This tornado is also currently rated an EF-0 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. Both of these touchdowns occurred because of a warm front that moved through the region today.
Tornado Warnings were not issued because the National Weather Service Doppler Radar had a hard time picking up the small shallow circulations. Also, McDonough and Warren Counties are not in the best region for radar coverage. Both counties are on the edge of the Quad Cities Radar, the St. Louis Radar, and the Lincoln Radar so when it comes to these small circulations, the radar beam is shooting at a higher angle so the rotation didn’t develop to where radar could detect it. Radar beams shoot at an angle so when a storm is closer to the radar, it’s at a lower height and easier to analyze, but when the storm is further away from the radar, the beam goes higher in height as it travels away from the radar so it becomes challenging to analyze storms.
