Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 2025

EF0 tornado, Saint Clair County, Illinois, April 19, 2025

This EF0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Saint Clair County on April 19, 2025, touching down at 1:54 AM CDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 of property damage.

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.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
April 19, 2025
Touchdown
1:54 AM CDT (06:54 UTC)
Lifted
1:55 AM CDT (06:55 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.5 miles (0.7 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
Saint Clair County
Touchdown point
38.392, -89.725
Lift-off point
38.393, -89.716
Record number
2504190054-01

The damage survey

2 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LSX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 83 mph.

  • Very narrow scope of damage. Shed destroyed, but little to no damage to trees or house next to it. Likely that tornado wind got into garage doors and lifted the roof. Debris strewn into field for several hundred yards.
  • RV tipped over. No visible damage to adjacent house.

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

The warnings

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

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
00:00 UTC03:22 UTCFlood WatchLSX
06:40 UTC07:10 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLSX
06:43 UTC07:11 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLSX

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:29 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 air that afternoon

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.

Lincoln, IL (KILX), 00:00Z

6.9 hours before the tornado, 218 km from the path. April 19, 2025.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2025-04-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 624 joules per kilogram, CIN -107, lifted condensation level 1213 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2025-04-19The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 194 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 54 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
624 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-107 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1153 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1213 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
54 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
194 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
116 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.3
Supercell composite
3.4
0-3 km lapse rate
6.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lincoln, IL (KILX), 12:00Z

5.1 hours after it, 218 km from the path. April 19, 2025.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2025-04-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -11509, lifted condensation level 885 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2025-04-19The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -54 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 63 knots.1939587897Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-11509 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
885 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
63 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-54 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-27 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The St Louis radar (KLSX), 90 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 06:52 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.

What was reported nearby

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

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
06:44 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 S FreeburgSt. Clair, ILMetal roof damage at intersection of Route 15 and 13. Time estimated from radar.
06:54 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 N Saint LiborySt. Clair, ILStructural damage to a large shed, RV tipped over, and miscellaeous loose debris flung into a field.
06:55 UTCTORNADO2 N Saint LiborySt. Clair, ILDamage survey crews confirmed what was likely an EF0 tornado just north of the community of St. Libory, IL. Damage indicators were very sparse, and largely limited to a two-car garage with collapsed walls. Debris from th
07:25 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Nw CentraliaMarion, ILTree limbs and powerlines down near W Kell and N Cherry. Time estimated by radar.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2025 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 19, 2025

27 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 194:00 PM CDTUnratedTom Green, TX2.0200
April 194:55 PM CDTUnratedTom Green, TX0.125
April 196:11 PM CDTEF0Jack, TX1.8300$75,000
April 196:24 PM CDTEF0Jack, TX0.6200$20,000
April 196:31 PM CDTEF1Jack, TX2.5250$150,000
April 196:38 PM CDTEF0Jack, TX2.1100
April 196:55 PM CDTEF0Montague, TX4.8250$500,000
April 198:19 PM CDTEF2Love, OK1.3300$300,000
April 198:20 PM CDTEF1Erath, TX6.850$1.0 million
April 198:44 PM CDTUnratedLove, OK0.720
April 198:45 PM CDTEF0Montague, TX0.3125$20,000
April 198:55 PM CDTEF2Hood, TX13.6250$3.0 million
April 199:29 PM CDTEF1Tom Green, TX0.2100
April 199:40 PM CDTUnratedMurray, OK0.5100
April 1910:01 PM CDTEF0Parker, TX4.125$12,000
April 1910:03 PM CDTEF1Pontotoc, OK4.31001$750,000
April 1910:10 PM CDTEF1Pontotoc, OK0.430$50,000
April 1910:10 PM CDTUnratedJohnston, OK0.550
April 1910:16 PM CDTEF1Parker, TX3.5250$750,000
April 1910:32 PM CDTEF1Hughes, OK2.115011$400,000
April 1910:34 PM CDTEF1Marshall, OK10.0500$300,000
April 1910:39 PM CDTEF1Parker, TX4.4110$600,000
April 1910:56 PM CDTEF2Marshall, OK3.050$200,000
April 1911:01 PM CDTEF1Parker, TX4.3200$100,000
April 1911:06 PM CDTEF1Johnston, OK12.0300$150,000
April 1911:42 PM CDTEF0Atoka, OK3.3300
April 1911:54 PM CDTEF1Coal, OK0.530$75,000

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.