EF1 tornado, Rockford to Roscoe, Illinois, March 31, 2023

1. EF065 to 85 mph

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

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

   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

EF1

Date

March 31, 2023

Touchdown

7:31 PM CDT (00:31 UTC)

Lifted

7:38 PM CDT (00:38 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

5.8 miles (9.3 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Winnebago County

Touchdown point

42.258, -89.080

Lift-off point

42.317, -88.999

Record number

2303311831-01

302 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS IWX and NWS LOT and NWS MKX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.

• from photo shared on social media, location approximate.
• Tree branches downed. End point.
• Playground set rolled about 20 feet
• Several trees downed in vicinity

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.

This tornado touched down about 1 mile southeast of downtown Rockford southwest of the intersection of Railroad Ave and 8th St. It then tracked northeastward through the city of Rockford for about 7 minutes and just under 6 miles before lifting as it approached the intersection of Riverside Blvd and Mulford Rd. The tornado caused widespread tree damage, which was most concentrated at and near the Sinnissippi Golf Course, where the tornado reached its peak width of about 300 yards. Most structural damage was caused by trees that were uprooted and fell onto houses, but the tornado itself did also cause mostly minor roof damage to multiple homes.

This tornado had crossed into Winnebago County from Ogle County in the far south side of Rockford along Edson Rd just west of S Mulford Rd. While in Winnebago County, the tornado caused generally EF-0 damage to farmland. The tornado had done mostly EF-0 damage while in Ogle County with one instance of EF-1 damage done to a home. The storm then crossed into Boone County south of Cherry Valley where it would later cause the partial roof collapse of the Apollo Theatre in Belvidere resulting in one fatality and 40 injuries.

This tornado began southwest of the intersection of Elmwood Rd and Rockton Ave on the north side of Rockford and tracked northeastward for almost 9 miles, straddling the Rock River as it tracked through the west side of Machesney Park before weakening and lifting over Roscoe. This tornado caused damage to several trees and outbuildings, as well as multiple homes, which primarily suffered roof damage. A couple of homes had entire portions of their roofs removed where the tornado was at its peak intensity and featured 90-100 mph winds.

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

8 minutes of warning. NWS LOT issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:23 UTC, 8 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:57 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:38 UTC and running to 01:21 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 Enhanced 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.

The Milwaukee radar (KMKX), 86 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:28 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.