Alert archive / Illinois / Tornado Watches in 2025
Tornado Watch 158
The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at Apr 20, 2025, 9:48 PM CDT for 4 states. It was in force for 4 hr.
The area
The outline as issued.
The facts
- Issued
- Apr 20, 2025, 9:48 PM CDT (02:48 UTC)
- Expired
- Apr 21, 2025, 1:56 AM CDT
- In force
- 4 hr
- Issued by
- the Storm Prediction Center
- Largest hail expected
- 1 in
- Strongest gust expected
- 60 kt
All 39 counties
Clay County, IL, Crawford County, IL, Edwards County, IL, Effingham County, IL, Gallatin County, IL, Hamilton County, IL, Hardin County, IL, Jasper County, IL, Lawrence County, IL, Massac County, IL, Pope County, IL, Richland County, IL, Saline County, IL, Wabash County, IL, Wayne County, IL, White County, IL, Gibson County, IN, Posey County, IN, Vanderburgh County, IN, Carlisle County, KY, Crittenden County, KY, Fulton County, KY, Graves County, KY, Henderson County, KY, Hickman County, KY, Livingston County, KY, Lyon County, KY, Marshall County, KY, McCracken County, KY, Union County, KY, Crockett County, TN, Dyer County, TN, Gibson County, TN, Haywood County, TN, Lake County, TN, Lauderdale County, TN, Obion County, TN, Tipton County, TN, Weakley County, TN
The radar
The Paducah radar (KPAH), 68 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 02:48 UTC, the scan nearest the moment this went out.
Open the radar archive at this moment
The archived warnings, watches and discussions in force at that minute are drawn over the scan, this one among them.
What SPC expected
The probabilities SPC published with the watch, for the watch area over its life.
- Two or more tornadoes
- 30%
- One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes
- 20%
- Ten or more severe wind reports
- 30%
- One or more gusts of 65 knots or more
- 10%
- Ten or more severe hail reports
- 5%
- One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more
- 5%
- Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports
- 50%
Warnings issued inside it
2 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 20, 11:22 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | MEG | Lake, Obion | 38 min |
| Apr 21, 12:23 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PAH | White | 37 min |
Discussions around it
SPC mesoscale discussions over the same counties from four hours before the watch to its end.
The nearest sounding before it
Lincoln, IL (KILX), launched 00:00Z, 2.8 hours before the alert went out and 284 km from the middle of its area. This is the routine balloon launch nearest before it, the air the forecaster had in hand, not a measurement taken for the alert.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 182 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -136 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1336 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 61 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 377 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 580 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.1
- Supercell composite
- 4.9
SPC that day
Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 20, 7:46 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Alexander, Bond, Bureau, Cass, Christian, Clay and 60 more | 89 min |
| Apr 20, 9:01 PM CDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | Ford, Grundy, Iroquois, Kankakee, LaSalle, Lee and 1 more | 116 min |
| Apr 20, 9:54 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | DeKalb, Ford, Grundy, Iroquois, Kankakee, Kendall and 2 more | 96 min |
| Apr 20, 11:44 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Clay, Edwards, Effingham, Fayette, Franklin, Gallatin and 15 more | 91 min |
| Apr 20, 8:48 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Calloway, Fulton | 87 min |
| Apr 21, 12:28 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Bedford, Coffee, Franklin, Giles, Grundy, Hamilton and 4 more | 3 hr |
Nearby
Tornado Watches in Illinois, 2025Tornado Watches in Kentucky, 2025Tornado Watches in Tennessee, 2025Every tornado watch in 2025
Sources
The product and its follow-ups from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center text; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.