Ninety years ago this Saturday the third deadliest tornado in Illinois history tore through Coles County, killing over 100 people. Witnesses described two boiling cloud masses coming together, but no funnel cloud. It’s thought that the accompanying wall cloud was too low and dense for the classic tornado funnel to be seen. The destruction wrought by this storm left no doubt there was a tornado, though. Here’s a section of the damage chart showing just Mattoon and Charleston.

Damage info

The path shown below passes very near to our current home. The text of the report says the tornado passed a mile north of Eastern Illinois University, so that would put it on the north side of town, but the path below places it right along Rt 16. Either way, too close for comfort.  😯

Tornado Path