Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 2025
Unrated tornado, Fairmount, Illinois, August 16, 2025
This Unrated tornado ran 0.1 miles across Vermilion County on August 16, 2025, touching down at 6:47 PM CDT and reaching 40 yards wide. It killed nobody.
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.
Unratedthis tornado
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
- Unrated
- Date
- August 16, 2025
- Touchdown
- 6:47 PM CDT (23:47 UTC)
- Lifted
- 6:48 PM CDT (23:48 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.1 miles (0.2 km)
- Path width
- 40 yards (37 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Vermilion County
- Touchdown point
- 40.059, -87.911
- Lift-off point
- 40.058, -87.909
- Record number
- 2508161747-01
The damage survey
8 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ILX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EFU. The highest wind the damage implies is 80 mph.
- Roof of an older outbuilding was torn off and thrown into the nearby field to the north.
- Sentinel satellite data and drone footage showed a few circular areas of corn blown down just west of the Vermilion County line and north of Catlin-Homer Road.
- Estimated start of tornado track
- Sentinel satellite data showed a number of areas with corn damage, south of the intersection of Lincoln Trail Rd and county road 300E.
Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.
What the Weather Service recorded
Scattered thunderstorms formed along an outflow boundary along the I-74 corridor during the late afternoon and evening of August 16th. One of the cells produced a brief EF-U tornado northeast of Homer in far western Vermilion County. Other storms dropped hail as large as quarters and caused minor wind damage.
Video and picture evidence showed a funnel cloud developing north of Homer. Sentinel satellite data suggested a brief touchdown in a field about 1.5 miles east of the Champaign/Vermilion County line just north of Catlin-Homer Road. Based on radar data, the tornado touched down at 6:47 PM CDT, then quickly lifted by 6:48 PM CDT. No damage was reported.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17:00 UTC | 01:00 UTC | Heat Advisory | ILX |
| 20:57 UTC | 23:00 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | ILX |
| 22:13 UTC | 22:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ILX |
| 22:50 UTC | 01:00 UTC | Flood Advisory | ILX |
| 23:20 UTC | 23:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ILX |
| 23:33 UTC | 00:04 UTC | Flood Advisory | ILX |
| 23:43 UTC | 00:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ILX |
| 00:03 UTC | 02:00 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | ILX |
| 00:13 UTC | 00:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ILX |
| 03:55 UTC | 06:05 UTC | Flood Advisory | ILX |
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 19:57 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), 12:00Z
11.8 hours before the tornado, 60 km from the path. August 16, 2025.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1421 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -116 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1014 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1426 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 23 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 14 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 54 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 120 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 2.7
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 3.9 K/km
Lincoln, IL (KILX), 00:00Z
0.2 hours after it, 60 km from the path. August 17, 2025.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 3918 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -3 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 5701 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1344 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 18 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 8 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 15 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 116 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 7.3 K/km
The surface observations
Danville (DNV), 31 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21:55 UTC | 77 | 68 | 130° 10 kt | 1017.3 | ||
| 22:15 UTC | 76.5 | 73 | 150° 5 kt | 1016.9 | ||
| 22:35 UTC | 77 | 73.4 | 0° 0 kt | 1017.6 | ||
| 22:55 UTC | 76.5 | 73 | 340° 19 kt | 25 | 1019 | |
| 23:15 UTC | 72.7 | 69.3 | 240° 23 kt | 31 | 1018.6 | |
| 23:35 UTC | 72.7 | 68 | 210° 10 kt | 20 | 1018.3 | |
| 23:55 UTC | 72 | 69.6 | 210° 11 kt | 1018.6 | ||
| 00:15 UTC | 73 | 69.8 | 210° 10 kt | 21 | 1018.3 | |
| 00:30 UTC | 72.5 | 69 | 200° 6 kt | 1018.3 | ||
| 01:15 UTC | 73.4 | 68.5 | 220° 4 kt | 1017.9 | ||
| 01:35 UTC | 73.4 | 69.3 | 250° 4 kt | 1018.6 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Lincoln radar (KILX), 122 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:45 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23:40 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Ene Homer | Champaign, IL | Drone footage and Sentinel satellite data showed circular damage to corn, just west of the Vermilion County line and north of county road 1100N, consistent with a microburst. |
| 23:43 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 Ssw Fithian | Vermilion, IL | Sentinel satellite data showed a number of areas with corn damage, south of the intersection of Lincoln Trail Rd and county road 300E. |
| 23:45 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 Ne Homer | Vermilion, IL | 2 inch tree limbs down along county road 130E south of the Salt Fork. Report from CoCoRaHS observer IL-CP-1. |
| 23:48 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 Ene Homer | Vermilion, IL | Drone footage and Sentinel satellite data showed a barn lost its roof and corn damage was seen along Catlin-Homer Road just west of county road 200E, consistent with a downburst. |
| 23:48 UTC | TORNADO | 1 N Homer | Champaign, IL | Delayed report. Received pictures and video of a tornado briefly touching down just north of Homer, IL in a field. EF-U. |
| 23:48 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Ene Homer | Vermilion, IL | Corrects previous tornado report from 1 N Homer. Drone footage showed a barn lost its roof and corn damage was seen along Catlin-Homer Road just west of county road 200E. |
| 23:50 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Ene Homer | Vermilion, IL | Corn laid down in a NE-SW direction north of county road 1250N and west of county road 130E. Report from CoCoRaHS observer IL-CP-1. |
| 00:46 UTC | RAIN 1.05 | Ogden | Champaign, IL | Storm total rainfall report from SWOP observer. |
| 01:31 UTC | RAIN 3 | Homer | Champaign, IL | Storm total rainfall. |
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 August 16, 2025
1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 16 | 3:41 AM CDT | EF0 | Hamlin, SD | 2.5 | 75 |
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.