EF1 tornado, Stewardson to Windsor, 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

11:47 PM CDT (04:47 UTC)

Lifted

11:52 PM CDT (04:52 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

5.1 miles (8.2 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Shelby County

Touchdown point

39.230, -88.650

Lift-off point

39.270, -88.570

Record number

2503142247-01

47 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ILX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 120 mph.

• Two large grain bins collapsed.
• Grain bin rolled out in the field.
• Structure was open on south side. Winds came in and tore roof off and north wall.
• Debris from metal building to the west.

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

A potent low pressure system progressed across the Midwest on Friday, March 14, 2025. Ahead of this system, temperatures soared nearly 30 degrees above normal with high temperatures reaching the low 80s across central Illinois. Into the evening and overnight hours, a cold front swept across Illinois, with a line of severe thunderstorms developing ahead of the front. These storms produced widespread damaging straight-line winds and eight tornadoes within the NWS Lincoln County Warning Area, all of which occurred in eastern Illinois. Two of these tornadoes were rated EF-2: one in Moultrie and Piatt counties, and another in Cumberland and Coles counties. The latter of these resulted in two injuries.

The tornado began near the intersection of county roads 100N and 2700E, about two miles south-southwest of Stewardson, where a hardwood tree was uprooted and the northeast side of the roof of a farm outbuilding was peeled off. The tornado crossed county road 2700E and struck a larger farm complex where a large farm building had its walls collapse and strewn about three-quarters of a mile to the northeast. The tornado crossed county road 2800E, damaging a small farm outbuilding. It continued northeast, uprooting a few large hardwood trees just north of county roads 300N and 3000E before dissipating.

The tornado began near county road 1175N, damaging a few trees and destroying a small shed. It then traveled north-northeast, destroying a large pole barn near county road 1300N and North 2900 East Road. As the tornado continued northeast, it destroyed two grain bins and snapped over a half dozen power poles. It uprooted multiple hardwood trees about a quarter mile west of county road 3000E before dissipating.

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

36 minutes of warning. NWS ILX issued a tornado warning for this county at 04:11 UTC, 36 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 05:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 01:02 UTC and running to 06:15 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 0.10 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.

Effingham (1H2), 21 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Lincoln radar (KILX), 118 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:49 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.