EF0 tornado, Yorkville to Oswego, Illinois, March 14, 2025

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 14, 2025

Touchdown

11:39 PM CDT (04:39 UTC)

Lifted

11:43 PM CDT (04:43 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

3.6 miles (5.9 km)

Path width

125 yards (114 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Kendall County

Touchdown point

41.615, -88.444

Lift-off point

41.645, -88.386

Record number

2503142239-01

23 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 80 mph.

• Trampoline damaged. Slight uptick in twig debris.
• Fence blown down. Some siding damage. Fascia torn off.
• Several housing with small amounts of fascia, siding removed.
• Dead tree snapped onto house.

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

A strong QLCS brought widespread damaging winds and a couple of tornadoes to the area on the night of the 14th, particularly near and north of the I-80 corridor.

A tornado developed near the intersection of Illinois Route 47 and Bonnie Lane and quickly moved east-northeast across a residential area of Yorkville. Wind speeds quickly increased to around 80 mph causing the removal of shingles, fascia trim, and some siding from several homes along Kingsmill St. A fence was also heavily damaged. Winds likely then eased somewhat as the tornado continued east-northeast causing some additional shingle damage as well as damaging several trees as it approached Illinois Route 126. The tornado continued across mainly open land along Illinois Route 71 before crossing Hilltop Road and causing additional shingle and trim damage to several homes in another residential subdivision. The tornado then dissipated near or just northeast of Reservation Road with straight line winds continuing downstream.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 23:55 UTC and running to 05:40 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:01 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), 16 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Chicago radar (KLOT), 28 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:38 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 2025 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

53 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.