Overview

A Mesoscale Convective Vortex, known as an MCV, moved slowly eastward across southern Missouri during the day on Thursday May 19. Ahead of this feature, a strongly unstable airmass developed across our area. Initial storm development occurred in the Wabash River Valley of southeast Illinois around midday and moved into southwest Indiana during the early afternoon. These storms produced large hail up to the size of baseballs. Thereafter, a lull occurred during the mid afternoon before convection associated with the MCV began entering northern portions of southeast Missouri into southwest Illinois during the late afternoon and early evening. Embedded bowing segments lead to pockets of wind damage from near Chester into Perry County Illinois. Thereafter, the storms appeared to show a weakening trend for a few hours, before flaring up again later in the evening. Additional wind damage occurred across the Wabash River Valley into southwest Indiana with this final round of convection. An EF-2 tornado touched down in Wabash County Illinois around 9:30 PM, and produced significant damage around the Mt Carmel, IL area before straddling the White River along the Gibson/Knox County line in Indiana.