A surface trough extending along the I-74 corridor triggered widely scattered showers and thunderstorms during the afternoon of May 13th. Given enhanced low-level vorticity in the vicinity of the boundary, a couple of the cells produced brief landspout tornadoes as they first developed and before precipitation began to fall.
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Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS ILX wrote it up.
A surface trough extending along the I-74 corridor triggered widely scattered showers and thunderstorms during the afternoon of May 13th. Given enhanced low-level vorticity in the vicinity of the boundary, a couple of the cells produced brief landspout tornadoes as they first developed and before precipitation began to fall. Three tornadoes were reported...including an EF-U near Emden in Logan County, and EF-U just north of Champaign in Champaign County, and an EF-0 that caused minor tree damage southwest of Toulon in Stark County.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Lincoln, IL wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at May 13, 2:13 PM CST, 36 minutes earlier. Its key messages:
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Lincoln IL 313 PM CDT Tue May 13 2025 .KEY MESSAGES... - Scattered showers and thunderstorms will continue into early evening. Heavy rain and a few cold air funnel clouds are possible. - Near-record heat is forecast for Thursday. - A conditional threat of severe weather exists both Thursday and Friday. && .DISCUSSION... Issued at 313 PM CDT Tue May 13 2025 An upper-level closed low located near the Ohio Valley this afternoon has promoted widely scattered showers and storms over central Illinois once again today. Weak steering flow and SBCAPE values over 1000 J/kg have allowed some of these storms to quickly perk up while slowly moving northwest. PWATs with values over the 90th percentile of climatology (~1.3 inch) have allowed some of the strongest storms to produce rainfall rates of over 1" inch per hour. Because of this, a couple Flood Advisories have been issued where training thunderstorms have been slow to exit, especially in the Bloomington-Normal area. High resolution CAMs struggle to depict ongoing activity with coverage far lower than what is actually occurring. Would expect widespread showers and storms to continue through early evening with activity waning with the loss of daytime heating. Another thing to keep an eye out for is the development of cold-air funnel clouds. The Storm Prediction Center's mesoanalysis page shows pockets of values >1 which is indicative of favorable conditions for these to develop in. Upper ridging builds in over the central CONUS for the middle of the week as a Pacific Northwest trough swings into the northern Plains states. Temperatures by Wednesday will climb into the low to middle 80s with near-record warmth expected by Thursday as temperatures peak in the upper 80s to low 90s. High temperature records for Thursday range from 90-93 at our three climate sites (Lincoln, Springfield, and Peoria), with Peoria's record of 93 degrees being 131 years old. A conditional threat for severe thunderstorms still exists on both Thursday and Friday. Thursday's threat is a true boom or bust scenario with a few factors at play that could result in little or no storm development - a capping inversion, dry air entrainment in the lowest ~700 mb, the speed of frontal progression, and being displaced from the main upper wave. Despite this, a high moisture airmass will allow very strong instability to develop (2000-3000 J/kg of SBCAPE) and strong shear of 40-50 kts. If we are able to erode the CAP sooner than later, discrete supercell thunderstorms would be able to develop with all severe hazards possible. Another day of severe storms will be possible on Friday, mainly in southeast parts of the state as a cold front swings through. Guidance shows similar if not better parameters setting up over the southern half of the state by Friday afternoon. SPC's Day 4 15% convective outlook is just outside of our area at this time, but would expect to see at least a marginal risk added with the issuance of the Day 3 outlook overnight tonight. The upper trough will swing through the Great Lakes Region by this weekend as upper ridging spreads into the central US behind it. The first half of the weekend looks to be mostly dry with global models showing a shortwave trough rippling through somewhere near the Ohio Valley going into Sunday. The NBM continues to show low end chances of precipitation entering the area on Sunday with another larger trough sending a stronger system and more precipitation chances into the Upper Mississippi Valley by the start of the new week. NMA && .AVIATION... (For the 18z TAFs through 18z Wednesday Afternoon) Issued at 103 PM CDT Tue May 13 2025 Widely scattered showers and thunderstorms will be possible this afternoon into early evening, bringing occasional drops into MVFR or IFR ceilings/visibility. Activity should quickly dwindle with the loss of daytime heating by this evening. Light south-southeast winds will persist through the overnight hours with speeds picking up some by later Wednesday morning. Patchy fog continues to look like a possibility overnight with the focus being in east-central IL. Several high resolution models show visibility dropping down in the 4-6 mile range. NMA && .ILX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... None. &&
Hazardous Weather Outlook National Weather Service Lincoln IL 300 PM CDT Tue May 13 2025 ILZ027>031-036>038-040>057-061>063-066>068-071>073-142000- Knox-Stark-Peoria-Marshall-Woodford-Fulton-Tazewell-McLean-Schuyler- Mason-Logan-De Witt-Piatt-Champaign-Vermilion-Cass-Menard-Scott- Morgan-Sangamon-Christian-Macon-Moultrie-Douglas-Coles-Edgar-Shelby- Cumberland-Clark-Effingham-Jasper-Crawford-Clay-Richland-Lawrence- 300 PM CDT Tue May 13 2025 This Hazardous Weather Outlook is for central Illinois, east central Illinois, southeast Illinois and west central Illinois. .DAY ONE...Tonight. Isolated to scattered thunderstorms are possible this afternoon and early evening. Severe weather is not expected, though lightning is a risk with any storms. Funnel clouds are possible, especially over eastern IL. Localized flooding is possible within the cells, as they are producing 1 inch per hour rain rates. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...Wednesday through Monday. Isolated thunderstorms are possible Thursday afternoon. Confidence is low on storm development, but the environment would favor large hail, damaging winds, and tornadoes if storms do form. Scattered thunderstorms are possible Friday afternoon and evening, primarily over eastern and southeast IL. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... Spotter activation is not anticipated tonight. Copple
Preliminary Local Storm Report
National Weather Service Lincoln IL
102 PM CDT Tue May 13 2025
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
1256 PM Rain Central Illinois Airpor 40.48N 88.91W
05/13/2025 M1.20 Inch McLean IL AWOS
AWOS station KBMI Bloomington Arpt.
&&
RACPreliminary Local Storm Report
National Weather Service Lincoln IL
238 PM CDT Tue May 13 2025
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0232 PM Rain Le Roy 40.35N 88.76W
05/13/2025 M1.00 Inch McLean IL Trained Spotter
1 inch of rain fell within 20 mins - relayed
and verified by EM.
&&
RACSpecial Weather Statement National Weather Service Lincoln IL 312 PM CDT Tue May 13 2025 ILZ027>031-036>038-040>057-061>063-066>068-071>073-140100- Knox-Stark-Peoria-Marshall-Woodford-Fulton-Tazewell-McLean-Schuyler- Mason-Logan-De Witt-Piatt-Champaign-Vermilion-Cass-Menard-Scott- Morgan-Sangamon-Christian-Macon-Moultrie-Douglas-Coles-Edgar-Shelby- Cumberland-Clark-Effingham-Jasper-Crawford-Clay-Richland-Lawrence- Including the cities of Galesburg, Toulon, Peoria, Lacon, Eureka, Canton, Pekin, Bloomington, Normal, Rushville, Havana, Lincoln, Clinton, Monticello, Champaign, Urbana, Danville, Beardstown, Petersburg, Winchester, Jacksonville, Springfield, Taylorville, Decatur, Sullivan, Tuscola, Charleston, Mattoon, Paris, Shelbyville, Greenup, Marshall, Effingham, Newton, Robinson, Flora, Olney, and Lawrenceville 312 PM CDT Tue May 13 2025 ...FUNNEL CLOUDS SIGHTED OVER CENTRAL ILLINOIS... At 303 PM, fire department reported a funnel cloud near Petersburg in Menard County. Atmospheric conditions exist that favor the possible formation of cold air funnel clouds. These occur in vertically developed clouds, which usually are not associated with thunderstorms. They may persist for an extended period before dissipating. Low hanging clouds can also appear to dip up and down at times, but they will not show signs of any rapid rotation. An actual funnel cloud will exhibit spinning in a counter-clockwise direction. In rare instances these funnels may briefly touch down. Stay alert and be prepared to move to a safe shelter if a funnel cloud approaches the ground. Bumgardner
The Lincoln radar (KILX), 20 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 20:50 UTC.
3 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
Video evidence showed a brief landspout tornado touched down just east of I-155 and north of US-136 about 2.5 miles east-northeast of Emden at 3:49 PM CDT. The tornado quickly dissipated...with no damage observed.
Video evidence showed a landspout tornado touched down near the Fed-Ex facility about 2.4 miles north of Champaign at 4:24 PM CDT. The tornado quickly dissipated...and no damage was observed.
A landspout tornado touched down in a field east of Highway 78 and south of 750 North about 2 miles southwest of Toulon at 5:02 PM CDT. The tornado tracked slowly southwestward causing minor tree damage before dissipating just east of Highway 78 and south of 700 North at 5:06 PM CDT.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Illinois in 2025Every state in 2025This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Illinois, 2025Warnings in Illinois, May 2025
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 1249957, 1249959, 1249965.