EF1 tornado, Valmeyer to Waterloo, Illinois, March 14, 2025

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 14, 2025

Touchdown

9:52 PM CDT (02:52 UTC)

Lifted

10:15 PM CDT (03:15 UTC)

On the ground

23 minutes

Path length

14.7 miles (23.6 km)

Path width

275 yards (251 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$150,000

Counties

Monroe and Saint Clair counties

Touchdown point

38.299, -90.311

Lift-off point

38.397, -90.073

Record number

2503142052-01

155 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LSX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 115 mph.

• Appears to be east of the meso track
• Tarp on roof per Worldview 2 satellite imagery taken on 3/16.
• Metal roof panels missing per Worldview 2 satellite imagery taken on 3/16.
• Missing roof panels per Worldview 2 satellite imagery taken on 3/16.

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

During the late afternoon of March 14, 2025, numerous severe thunderstorms developed across central Missouri and tracked east. After sunset, these thunderstorms began producing tornadoes, some strong, across portions of Missouri and Illinois. In total, 13 tornadoes touched down in the CWA, making it one of the most active outbreaks on record for the St. Louis CWA. Six of these tornadoes occurred at least partially in St. Louis's Illinois counties.

At approximately 9:52 PM a tornado began southwest of Valmeyer, IL in Monroe County and continued northeast where it impacted the towns of Valmeyer and Waterloo. The worst damage was to residences and small businesses within these municipalities. From Waterloo the tornado moved into a rural area where it produced minor tree damage along the Monroe/St. Clair County border. In Monroe County the tornado was rated EF-1 with a path length of 12.3 miles and maximum path width of 275 yards.

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 tornado watch, issued at 21:06 UTC and running to 04:00 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 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. 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.

The St Louis radar (KLSX), 58 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:50 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.