EF0 tornado, Preston Heights to Lincoln Estates, Illinois, March 19, 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 19, 2025

Touchdown

5:00 PM CDT (22:00 UTC)

Lifted

5:01 PM CDT (22:01 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.3 miles (0.4 km)

Path width

90 yards (82 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Will County

Touchdown point

41.489, -88.060

Lift-off point

41.491, -88.056

Record number

2503191600-01

29 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LOT, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EFU. The highest wind the damage implies is 80 mph.

• Siding removed from southwest wall
• Shallow rooted pine uprooted
• Large shallow rooted pine uprooted. Limbs down and twisted to the northeast
• Shallow rooted pine uprooted. Facing across centerline

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

During the afternoon and evening of the 19th, a strong line of thunderstorms produced damaging winds, severe hail, and a few tornadoes across portions of the WFO Chicago CWA.

A tornado touched down just southeast of the intersection of Rowell Avenue and Eunice Avenue in Preston Heights. This brief tornado moved east-northeast across Eunice Avenue, causing shingle damage to one house and uprooting a few trees. Metal panels and pieces of a car port were blown to the northeast at least 200 yards, and one vehicle was blown over. Peak winds were estimated at 75 mph. This tornado dissipated near Howliston Court.

This brief tornado began in a subdivision just east of the Arnold J. Tyler Elementary school in New Lenox. It continued to the northeast and crossed Joliet Highway near Anderson Road and then turned eastward, causing shingle, tree, and fencing damage to houses on either side of Schoolhouse Road. Damage became sporadic as the tornado lifted and dissipated over the Bluestone Commons Retail Center. Damage along the track was consistent with an EF-0 tornado with peak winds near 70 mph.

A tornado briefly touched down near Sauk Trail near the Sauk Trail Forest Preserve in Frankfort. This tornado moved to the north northeast into a residential area along Shetland Drive and Troon Circle. Damage was mostly confined to broken branches and a few small uprooted trees. Peak winds were estimated at 65 mph. The tornado dissipated just past this neighborhood near Harlem Avenue.

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 17:16 UTC and running to 23:14 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 19:58 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.

Joliet (JOT), 10 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Chicago radar (KLOT), 13 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:00 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

14 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.