EF2 tornado, Boles to Ozark, Illinois, March 15, 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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

March 15, 2025

Touchdown

1:15 AM CDT (06:15 UTC)

Lifted

1:31 AM CDT (06:31 UTC)

On the ground

16 minutes

Path length

15.6 miles (25.1 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$1.0 million

County

Johnson County

Touchdown point

37.407, -88.944

Lift-off point

37.544, -88.717

Record number

2503150015-01

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

• Several trees with snapped trunks here.

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

A significant severe weather episode unfolded across southern Illinois around midnight on the 15th, as numerous severe storms produced tornadoes, damaging winds, and large hail. A strong negative-tilt 500mb trough moved northeast from Kansas to the Upper Midwest through the day and into the evening on the 14th. The associated 978mb surface low followed a similar track, and led to a rapid increase in low-level moisture just ahead of a trailing dry line that moved eastward across southern Illinois in the early morning hours of the 15th. The moisture return was sufficient for 1000-2000J/kg of CAPE to develop. Wind fields were extremely strong, with storm relative helicity in the 0-1km layer of 300m2/s2 and above, and 600m2/s2 in the 0-3km layer. The significant tornado parameter was over 6 which supported strong and long-track tornadoes. In addition, steep mid-level lapse rates around 8C/km supported very large hail. Two EF-2 tornadoes each produced a 15 mile path of destruction. One formed in far northern Jackson County and lifted northeast passing just west of DuQuoin and eventually struck the St Johns community just north of DuQuoin. The second tornado formed west of Vienna and moved northeast crossing Interstate 57 just north of Exit 14. It struck Bloomfield and then tracked through the Shawnee National Forest and lifted just before reaching Pope County. The tornadoes damage trees and power lines and did mainly roof damage to numerous homes, barns, and outbuildings. In addition to the tornadoes, straight line winds knocked down trees and power poles near Ava and Cutler, and knocked a tree into a house in Brookport. Hail up to the size of golf balls fell in Harrisburg.

An EF-2 Tornado began on Old Cypress Road west of Vienna, moved northeast, crossing Interstate 24 just north of exit 14, and dissipated near Belville Road east of Ozark. The tornado damaged trees and power poles along its path, but also destroyed several barns and did significant roof damage to several homes. The most significant damage occurred just east of Interstate 24 over to Dixon Lane just east of U.S. 45. The estimated peak wind was 115 mph.

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

17 minutes of warning. NWS PAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 05:58 UTC, 17 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 06:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 00:39 UTC and running to 08:07 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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 05:34 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 Paducah radar (KPAH), 46 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 06:13 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

49 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.