Illinois

Storm History: Champaign County, Illinois

560 episodes, 1,042 events since 1953

Every storm the National Weather Service has filed in Champaign County, Illinois: floods, hail, damaging wind, tornadoes, winter storms, heat and the rest, with the most serious on record. Events filed by forecast zone count for every county the zone covers.

The record

Events
1,042
Deaths
12
Injuries
136
Damage
$239 million
Episodes
560

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.

Open the live radar over Champaign County

Every year

From 1996 the record holds 48 kinds of event with each office’s narrative; before that, tornadoes, hail and thunderstorm wind only, and before 1955 tornadoes alone.

By kind of event

Counted under the kind that heads each episode.

Kind of eventEventsDeathsInjuriesDamage
Tornado428264$108 million
Hail22401$6.8 million
Flash Flood12400$50 million
Thunderstorm Wind11005$1.7 million
High Wind3106$64,000
Heavy Snow2520
Winter Storm2000
Drought1300$73 million
Winter Weather1038
Extreme Cold/Wind Chill910
Heat700
Excessive Heat700
Strong Wind700$24,000
Ice Storm5047
Cold/Wind Chill420
Lightning401$84,000
Blizzard420$50,000
Dust Storm404
Flood300
Frost/Freeze100
Dense Fog100
Wildfire100

The deadliest

The costliest

Damage within this county, in the dollars of its year.

The largest hail

The largest stone in each episode, which may have fallen in a neighboring county of the same episode.

The strongest tornadoes

Every tornado in Champaign County, with its track

Every episode, newest first

Earlier years, state by state:

More

Tornadoes in Champaign CountyEvery warning in Champaign County since 1986Every county in Illinois

Sources

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.