EF1 tornado, Pecatonica to Rockton, 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

4:57 PM CDT (21:57 UTC)

Lifted

5:07 PM CDT (22:07 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

5.0 miles (8.1 km)

Path width

400 yards (366 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Winnebago County

Touchdown point

42.388, -89.189

Lift-off point

42.429, -89.117

Highest wind the damage implies

110 mph

Surveyed by

NWS LOT

The office's name for it

Harrison

Survey last edited

May 12, 2026

Record number

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

A high-end EF-1 tornado began near Stephens Road between Harrison Road and Meridian Road southeast of Harrison, initially causing damage to trees and a few sheds and outbuildings. Video footage from storm chasers documented the tornado becoming fully condensed and growing in size and intensity as it tracked east-northeastward across Favor Road and impacted two farmsteads, causing significant damage to a few outbuildings and snapping and uprooting multiple trees. Additional storm chaser footage showed the tornado intensifying again as it tracked northeastward across Gummow Road and then reaching peak intensity as it impacted a property along Freeport Road. At this property, the majority of an older two-story house's roof was removed, several trees were snapped, and an old barn was destroyed. The footage then captured the tornado making a sharp turn to the southeast and crossing Freeport Road once again before roping out and eventually dissipating in open fields near Owen Center Road.

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

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

• Two irrigation systems displaced/rolled. Not a DI. Damage is all to the southeast.
• About 10 trees uprooted or snapped. Going southeast. From different storm?
• Doors blown in, roofing blown off. Sheet metal noted in field to the south.
• Completely destroyed, taken to the southeast.

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

A line of severe thunderstorms moved across all of northern Illinois during the evening of April 17th producing several tornadoes and wind damage. Large hail occurred across parts of northwest Illinois and flooding occurred across parts of northeast Illinois.

Storm chaser video showed a brief tornado touched down in an open field three miles from north of Pecatonica. The tornado was only on the ground for about two minutes and caused no known damage.

A high-end EF-1 tornado began near Meridian Road between Favor Road and Steward Road southeast of Harrison, initially causing damage to trees and an outbuilding. Video footage from storm chasers documented the tornado becoming fully condensed and growing in size and intensity as it tracked east-northeastward across Favor Road and impacted two farmsteads, causing significant damage to a few outbuildings and snapping and uprooting multiple trees. Additional storm chaser footage showed the tornado intensifying again as it tracked northeastward across Gummow Road and then reaching peak intensity as it impacted a property along Freeport Road. At this property, the majority of an older two-story house's roof was removed, several trees were snapped, and an old barn was destroyed. The footage then captured the tornado making a sharp turn to the southeast and crossing Freeport Road once again before roping out and eventually dissipating in open fields near Owen Center Road.

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

48 minutes of warning. NWS LOT issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:09 UTC, 48 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:45 UTC and running to 01:56 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 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:53 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 Milwaukee radar (KMKX), 79 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:54 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.