Draft:1990 Petersburg tornado

Episode narrative

The system that was responsible for this deadly F4 and numerous other tornadoes across the region, were from spawned the same system that produced a violent F4 tornado near Bakersfield Valley, Texas the day prior.^[4] On the early afternoon of June 2 at 12:00 p.m EDT (04:00 UTC), the Severe Local Storms Unit (SELS) in Kansas City, Missouri, issued a Public Severe Weather Outlook (PWO) for parts of the Great Lakes region, down south to the Mississippi and Ohio River Valleys, citing the possibility of an outbreak of severe thunderstorms for the eastern United States. More than half of Illinois was covered in this PWO, but also Indiana, eastern portions of Missouri and Iowa, south central Wisconsin, most of Lower Michigan, western Ohio and western to northern Kentucky. An unusually strong system over the Great Plains, was forecasted to intensify as it migrated northeast towards the Great Lakes in the evening. A robust cold front extended from a strong surface low stationed over southeast North Dakota to western Iowa and Missouri, down to eastern Oklahoma and north central Texas during the mid morning hours. The cold front was expected to move quickly to the Great Lakes, and the Mississippi and Ohio River Valleys around noon into the night hours. Winds from the south ahead of the cold front brought moisture and an unstable air mass northward into the region. Strong winds aloft, paired up with the moist and unstable air were expected to be conducive for severe thunderstorm development ahead of the cold front over the Mississippi Valley by early noon. A quasi-linear convective system was also expected to form during the afternoon and evening hours. The storms from this event were forecasted to be capable of producing damaging wind, large hail and destructive tornadoes. While all attention was put over the Great Lakes, down to the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys, forecasters note the possibility of isolated threats in Texas, Arkansas, Minnesota, western Tennessee and portions of northern Louisiana and Mississippi.^[5]

Event narrative

On June 2, at 7:05 p.m EDT (11:05 UTC), the National Weather Service office in Indianapolis, Indiana, issued an urgent appeal regarding a dangerous situation to all storm spotters, and responsible organizations to activate and remain alert throughout the region. Numerous tornadoes, some strong were reported on the ground at the time. This made it the most significant tornado outbreak in years.^[5]

Near miss with initial long-track tornado

Before the more destructive tornado directly impacted the Pike County seat, a long-track, violent and widely documented F4 tornado that started in southeast Illinois, and impacted Albion, Browns and Mount Carmel and across portions of southwest Indiana, passed by to the north of Petersburg, causing damage to transmission lines belonging to AES Petersburg. A photograph of the long-track tornado was taken in the area.^[6]

Petersburg tornado

As dusk began to settle around 8:17 p.m. CDT (01:17 UTC), what would become the damaging tornado that impacted Petersburg, touched down to the north of Mount Olympus in Gibson County, or west of Union. The tornado quickly crossed into Pike County, where it shifted a house 30 feet (9.1 m) off its foundation and destroyed another home across the street, killing two people. Passing by Union, the tornado continued heading in an east-northeastern direction, as it trekked through northwestern Pike County, south of Bowman. At the same time at around 9:26 p.m. EDT (01:26 UTC), a video of the tornado was being taken to the north, showing the dark silhouette of the twister across the horizon.^[7][1]

Approximately 14 minutes later, at 9:40 p.m. EDT (01:40 UTC), the tornado impacted the southwest side of Petersburg. The first structure in town to be impacted was a nursing home^[1]