Tornadoes · United States · Illinois

2001 tornadoes in Illinois

21 tornadoes touched down in Illinois in 2001, 49 percent below the average of the record for the state. None of them killed anybody.

2000 2002 The whole country in 2001

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

F040 to 72 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
F2113 to 157 mph
Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.
F3158 to 206 mph
Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
F5261 to 318 mph
Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.
Unrated
The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

Every tornado in Illinois in 2001

April 9 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
April 9	6:28 PM CDT	F0	Marshall	0.3	15

April 10 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
April 10	9:35 PM CDT	F1	Madison	2.0	100		1	$5.0 million

May 10 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 10	10:10 PM CDT	F0	DeKalb	0.1	20

May 26 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 26	3:10 PM CDT	F0	Iroquois	0.2	30

May 31 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 31	3:08 PM CDT	F0	Madison	0.2	50			$50,000
May 31	4:45 PM CDT	F0	Perry	0.1	30

July 8 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)
July 8	4:24 PM CDT	F0	Moultrie	1.5	150
July 8	4:49 PM CDT	F0	Moultrie	0.1	20
July 8	5:14 PM CDT	F0	Shelby	0.1	20

July 17 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 17	3:15 PM CDT	F0	Warren	0.1	10

August 18 5 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)
August 18	12:36 PM CDT	F0	Mason	0.1	25
August 18	2:05 PM CDT	F0	DeWitt	0.3	100
August 18	3:14 PM CDT	F0	Champaign	0.1	20
August 18	3:51 PM CDT	F0	Champaign	0.1	5
August 18	6:02 PM CDT	F0	Jefferson	0.1	30

August 25 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
August 25	2:59 PM CDT	F0	Will	0.1	20

October 24 5 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries	Damage
October 24	1:24 PM CDT	F0	Macon	0.1	20
October 24	1:35 PM CDT	F2	Piatt	1.8	300		$2.2 million
October 24	1:55 PM CDT	F1	Champaign	1.0	100	2	$500,000
October 24	2:35 PM CDT	F1	Randolph	2.0	70
October 24	3:40 PM CDT	F0	White	0.5	50		$50,000

Nearby

Every tornado in Illinois since 1950 Warnings in force in Illinois The live radar over Illinois

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.