EF0 tornado, Montgomery to Joliet, Illinois, March 31, 2023

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. 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.

7. 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.

Rating

EF0

Date

March 31, 2023

Touchdown

7:55 PM CDT (00:55 UTC)

Lifted

8:01 PM CDT (01:01 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

5.6 miles (9.0 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Kendall and Kane counties

Touchdown point

41.712, -88.391

Lift-off point

41.738, -88.288

Record number

2303311855-01

144 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LOT, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.

• Swath of tree damage with large limbs and whole trees down. Roofing damage on most homes along this path.
• Several large branches down at Walkers Grove School. Trash dumpsters blown about 150 feet to the northeast. Siding damaged at multiple houses.
• Multiple spruce trees down.
• Tree snapped, multiple trees down, shingles off several homes.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

During the afternoon and evening of the 31st, a wave of severe thunderstorms produced numerous tornadoes, severe hail, extensive wind damage, and localized flooding across northern and northeastern Illinois. A total of 37 tornadoes were confirmed across the state. The NWS Chicago office tied a record for the most tornadoes to occur in a single calendar day within the office's county warning area with 22, 17 of which occurred in Illinois. One EF-2 tornado occurred in south-central Lee County and two others in northwest Indiana. Some of the more notable damage includes multiple semi trucks blown over, a garage that had been completely destroyed southeast of Amboy, and the partial roof collapse of the Apollo Theatre in Belvidere which unfortunately resulted in one fatality and 40 injuries.

The tornado touched down near the intersection of Concord Dr and Columbia Ln in southwestern Montgomery. It produced minor damage to an outbuilding shortly after dropping and to a few trees before crossing into Kane County just a couple of minutes after forming. The storm then continued northeastward through Montgomery damaging mostly trees before lifting on the south side of Aurora.

Just a couple of minutes after touching down in far northern Kendall County, this tornado crossed into Kane County in Montgomery just west of Albright Rd. The tornado had caused minor damage to an outbuilding while still in Kendall County but most of the damage in Kane County was to trees. The tornado lifted on the south side of Aurora near the intersection of Hill Ave and Binder St.

This tornado began in an open field south of Engstrom Family Park and tracked east northeast towards downtown Batavia before lifting shortly after it crossed the Fox River near Wilson St. Damage along the tornado's path consisted of several uprooted and damaged trees, downed fences, downed power lines, roof shingles peeled off of houses, and a toppled chimney.

This tornado began south of Dean St near 15th St in St Charles and tracked northeast. It passed over Boy Scout Island and the Fox River before lifting near the intersection of Stonehedge Rd and Persimmon Dr. Damage along the tornado's path consisted of several uprooted and damaged trees, downed power lines, roof shingles peeled off of houses, and a damaged HVAC unit on the roof of a construction facility.

This tornado began near the intersection of Arbeiter and Black Roads in unincorporated Joliet. Several homes were damaged including to shingles and one chimney had collapsed. Just about a minute after touching down, the tornado crossed into Will County near Hadrian Dr and continued damaging shingles and trees lifting just before reaching IL Rt. 59.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:38 UTC and running to 01:49 UTC.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Moderate Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:54 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Chicago/Aurora (ARR), 13 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Chicago radar (KLOT), 25 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:53 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2023 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

126 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 127 of them

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.

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