Tornadoes · United States · Illinois

2019 tornadoes in Illinois

48 tornadoes touched down in Illinois in 2019, 17 percent above the average of the record for the state. None of them killed anybody.

2018 2020 The whole country in 2019

The rating scale

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

EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
EF2111 to 135 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.
EF3136 to 165 mph
Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
EF5over 200 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 2019

January 18 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
January 18	4:05 PM CST	Unrated	Will	0.1	25

April 24 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
April 24	3:59 PM CDT	EF0	Pulaski	0.2	30			$1,000

April 30 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
April 30	3:52 PM CDT	EF0	Montgomery	1.2	25

May 21 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 21	7:01 PM CDT	EF0	Monroe	0.3	50

May 22 4 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)
May 22	8:17 PM CDT	EF1	Hancock	0.5	30
May 22	9:56 PM CDT	EF0	Schuyler	1.8	50
May 22	12:15 AM CDT	EF1	Menard	15.3	150
May 22	12:33 AM CDT	EF1	Logan	2.7	100

May 23 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)
May 23	1:10 AM CDT	EF1	Piatt	1.3	200
May 23	2:06 AM CDT	EF1	Vermilion	1.6	200
May 23	8:15 AM CDT	EF0	Clay	0.7	20

May 24 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
May 24	12:33 PM CDT	EF1	McDonough	7.8	50
May 24	12:41 PM CDT	EF1	McDonough	1.9	30
May 24	1:10 PM CDT	EF0	Fulton	1.2	20	$10,000

May 25 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 25	11:14 PM CDT	EF1	Tazewell	1.1	200
May 25	11:19 PM CDT	EF1	Tazewell	0.7	150

May 26 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)
May 26	1:23 AM CDT	EF1	Champaign	0.9	250
May 26	1:27 AM CDT	EF1	Champaign	0.8	250
May 26	1:35 AM CDT	EF1	Champaign	1.0	250

May 27 6 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)
May 27	1:47 PM CDT	EF0	Kendall	1.0	30
May 27	2:04 PM CDT	EF0	Will	3.2	300
May 27	3:15 PM CDT	EF0	Knox	0.1	10
May 27	4:27 PM CDT	EF0	Lee	0.7	30
May 27	4:27 PM CDT	EF0	Cook	0.8	50
May 27	4:38 PM CDT	EF0	Woodford	0.1	10

May 28 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 28	4:06 PM CDT	EF0	Vermilion	0.2	10

May 29 4 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)
May 29	4:28 PM CDT	EF0	Christian	0.2	20
May 29	4:30 PM CDT	EF0	Christian	0.2	20
May 29	4:35 PM CDT	EF0	Christian	0.3	20
May 29	4:50 PM CDT	EF0	Macon	0.5	20

June 12 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 12	6:14 PM CDT	EF0	Saint Clair	0.5	10			$10,000

June 15 4 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
June 15	2:43 PM CDT	EF0	Macoupin	1.8	30
June 15	8:38 PM CDT	EF1	Mercer	0.7	40
June 15	10:19 PM CDT	EF1	Tazewell	2.4	200	$60,000
June 15	11:36 PM CDT	EF1	McLean	1.9	50	$40,000

June 19 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)
June 19	6:40 PM CDT	EF0	Christian	0.1	10
June 19	7:22 PM CDT	EF0	Moultrie	0.1	10
June 19	7:22 PM CDT	EF0	Marion	0.1	25

June 23 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 23	5:10 PM CDT	EF1	Pope	2.8	120			$40,000

June 30 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 30	2:39 PM CDT	Unrated	Iroquois	0.1	25

July 21 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 21	1:31 PM CDT	Unrated	Iroquois	0.4	25

August 12 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
August 12	9:08 PM CDT	EF1	Christian	6.3	200			$75,000
August 12	9:40 PM CDT	EF0	Christian	1.9	75			$20,000

August 21 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
August 21	7:59 PM CDT	EF0	Macon	0.1	10

September 1 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
September 1	2:31 PM CDT	EF0	Cumberland	0.3	20

September 3 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
September 3	6:39 PM CDT	EF1	Lake	3.1	200		1

September 27 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
September 27	8:22 PM CDT	EF0	Fulton	1.9	100			$85,000

September 29 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
September 29	4:18 PM CDT	EF0	Logan	2.7	50

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.