EF1 tornado, McLean County, Illinois, April 17, 2026

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, as surveyed

EF1, preliminary

Date

April 17, 2026

Touchdown

8:54 PM CDT (01:54 UTC)

Lifted

9:27 PM CDT (02:27 UTC)

On the ground

33 minutes

Path length

33.8 miles (54.4 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$300

County

McLean County

Touchdown point

40.341, -89.074

Lift-off point

40.531, -88.486

Highest wind the damage implies

100 mph

Surveyed by

NWS ILX

The office's name for it

Downs-Ellsworth Tornado

Survey last edited

April 18, 2026

Record number

None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.

The tornado touched down about 2.5 miles southeast of Funks Grove where it produced some tree damage along E 400 North Rd. It progressed northeast crossing Hwy 51 just south of Randolph, causing damage to numerous trees along the way. As it headed toward Downs, it caused EF-1 damage to a home several large trees, with estimated wind speeds of 100 mph. As the tornado moved northeast toward Ellsworth, it caused more tree damage and some home damage, with wind speeds up to 100 mph. The remainder of the tornado path were through countryside areas, with tree damage the primary impacts. The tornado dissipated about 1.5 miles from the McLean County line along E 1700 North Rd.

Written by NWS ILX in the NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit. A survey is revised as better evidence arrives.

241 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ILX and NWS LOT, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.

• Insulation blown to east from building.
• Looks like it split and went two directions.
• Debris blown east across street into field.
• Several large trees downed or uprooted on the east side of Clearwater Park. Multiple trees were snapped at the base. Some of the trees fell onto park equipment, resulting in damage to picnic tables and trash cans.

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

34 minutes of warning. NWS ILX issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:20 UTC, 34 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:32 UTC and running to 02:54 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, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 00:59 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 Lincoln radar (KILX), 57 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:57 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 2026 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

88 more have been surveyed in the United States that day, so far.

All 89 of them

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. A survey can be revised, so the rating, the path and the casualties can all still change.

NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit, the record the survey teams file from the damage, and NOAA Storm Prediction Center storm reports. Neither is the official database for 2026, which SPC publishes in the spring of 2027.