EF0 tornado, Holcomb, Illinois, April 2, 2026

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, as surveyed

EF0, preliminary

Date

April 2, 2026

Touchdown

6:44 PM CDT (23:44 UTC)

Lifted

6:47 PM CDT (23:47 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

2.7 miles (4.4 km)

Path width

350 yards (320 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Ogle County

Touchdown point

42.058, -89.118

Lift-off point

42.075, -89.071

Highest wind the damage implies

85 mph

Surveyed by

NWS LOT

The office's name for it

Holcomb

Survey last edited

April 11, 2026

Record number

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

An EF-0 tornado began one mile west-southwest of the community of Holcomb near Church Road, where it damaged trees and peeled part of a sheet metal roof off of a barn. The tornado tracked east-northeastward across open fields before impacting Holcomb. In Holcomb, numerous trees were uprooted, snapped, or lost branches and limbs; a church had its roof and windows damaged; a few houses suffered minor roofing and fascia damage; and a barn was destroyed. A grain leg also collapsed, blocking the railroad tracks on the east side of the community. The tornado then continued east-northeastward for a little over one mile longer, impacting a property along State Route 251 between Big Mound Road and Holcomb Road before dissipating. Sporadic straight-line wind damage continued for several miles to the northeast of the tornado's end point.

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

47 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LOT, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.

• Some red structure tossed onto the road. It's unclear what this object is or where it came from.
• Grain leg collapsed onto railroad tracks
• Three trees uprooted -- one towards the south-southeast, one towards the southeast, and one towards the east-southeast.
• Portions of barn’s sheet metal roof torn off and deposited in the fields to the south and east of this farmstead.

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

Scattered thunderstorms moved across portions of northern Illinois during the evening of April 2nd producing wind damage and three tornadoes.

An NWS damage survey confirmed that an EF-0 tornado with estimated peak winds of 85 mph tracked through the community of Holcomb in northeastern Ogle County. The tornado caused extensive tree damage in Holcomb, damaged a few farm outbuildings, and caused a grain leg to collapse onto railroad tracks.

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 18:43 UTC and running to 02:03 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 19:56 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.

Rockford (RFD), 14 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Chicago radar (KLOT), 98 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:41 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

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

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.