EF4 Marion tornado, Illinois, May 16, 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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF4

Date

May 16, 2025

Touchdown

6:15 PM CDT (23:15 UTC)

Lifted

6:32 PM CDT (23:32 UTC)

On the ground

17 minutes

Path length

16.3 miles (26.2 km)

Path width

900 yards (823 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

7

Property damage

$25 million

County

Williamson County

Touchdown point

37.655, -89.094

Lift-off point

37.660, -88.797

Record number

2505161715-02

57 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS PAH, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF4. The highest wind the damage implies is 190 mph.

• Family sheltered safely in anchored storm shelter
• Added via high-resolution satellite imagery.
• Hundreds of trunk snapped.
• Two story home built in 2003 at 12928 Kyler Court completely swept away with slab cleared and debris scattered into wooded area behind the home. Trees behind the homes were reduced to stubbs. Residents were not home at the time the tornado struck. Analysis by NWS damage surveyors and structural engineering experts showed that everything above the floor diaphragm of the home was removed. The studs were toe-nailed, and there was evidence of partially engineered wood being removed. The extreme tree stubbing combined with the typical construction methods of the home support an estimated peak wind speed rating of 190 mph.

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

A 500mb shortwave trough moved across the Upper Midwest with height falls across the Quad State during the afternoon and evening of the 16th. The exit region of a strong (125kt) upper level jet was positioned across the area as well. Low-level winds strengthened during the afternoon to 50kts at 850mb. Following the early AM convection, ample sunshine allowed for a very unstable airmass to develop with CAPE of 3000-4000J/kg with deep layer shear of 65-70kts. Late afternoon, STP peaked at 9 near the Wabash/Ohio River confluence with effective SRH of 300-400m2/s2. Mid-level lapse rates peaked at 8-8.5C/km for much of the Quad State with significant hail parameter of 3-5 mid-afternoon and DCAPE peaking at 1200-1500J/kg. Initial storm formation was discrete with very large hail and tornadoes, with storms becoming more linear later in the evening with the approach of a cold front.||Damage reports were widespread near and south of IL-13 in Southern Illinois. An especially powerful supercell produced a violent tornado south of Marion with peak winds estimated at 190mph, the strongest in the Quad State region since the December 10, 2021 Western Kentucky tornado. The worst of the damage was between Andrew Rd and Wards Mill Rd with the EF-4 damage point a home swept off its foundation on Kyler Ct. This supercell would continue on to produce two more tornadoes (in Southeastern Saline and Southern Gallatin Counties) before crossing into Northwestern Kentucky. Large hail was commonplace with the afternoon supercells, with the largest reports being multiple baseball size hail reports in Pulaski County.

A violent EF-4 tornado with peak winds of 190 mph impacted southern Williamson County, IL, during the early evening hours of Friday, May 16, 2025. The tornado began near the intersection of Spillway Road and Grassy Road doing mainly tree damage. As it moved eastward, the tornado intensified as it approached I-57. The tornado strengthened to EF-3 levels, where it removed the roofs of several homes of the staff of the U.S. Penitentiary just south of the main prison complex. The tornado debarked, and reduced to stubs, numerous trees adjacent to I-57. Multiple videos of this tornado were taken around the time it crossed I-57. The tornado continued at EF-3 strength as it damaged homes along IL-37 and north of Hudgens Road. The tornado reached peak intensity after crossing Market Road and into a subdivision just east of Andrew Road and north of Quarter Horse Road. Four homes on Kyler Court and Leslie Court sustained EF-3 damage. In addition, a newer two-story home with standard construction was completely swept off its foundation at the end of Kyler Court, which supported a rating of EF-4 with peak winds of 190 mph. The wooded area just east of Kyler Court saw extreme stubbing and some debarking of trees. The tornado continued eastward, destroying or severely damaging several homes at EF-2 or EF-3 strength on Wards Mill Road. Additional homes were destroyed at EF-3 damage levels a couple miles to the east on Highway 166. After crossing Highway 166, the tornado turned to the east-southeast and began to weaken, eventually lifting near the intersection of Mauseyville Road and Tyler Bridge Road. There were no fatalities, but seven people sustained non-life-threatening injuries.

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

7 minutes of warning. NWS PAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:08 UTC, 7 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:50 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:01 UTC and running to 00:49 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 19:31 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), 67 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:12 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

26 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.