EF1 tornado, Douglas Park to Penrose, Illinois, April 2, 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 2, 2026

Touchdown

6:02 PM CDT (23:02 UTC)

Lifted

6:07 PM CDT (23:07 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

4.1 miles (6.6 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Whiteside County

Touchdown point

41.797, -89.733

Lift-off point

41.830, -89.666

Highest wind the damage implies

90 mph

Surveyed by

NWS DVN

The office's name for it

Sterling

Survey last edited

April 29, 2026

Record number

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

A tornado passed through northern portions of Sterling, with estimated maximum wind speeds around 90 mph. Along the path, damage was done to trees (including snapped) and two garages in the path saw complete loss of their roofs. Minor damage was noted to two church roofs. There was also a 3000 lb rooftop HVAC unit rolled over, consistent with maximum winds of at least 90 mph.

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

49 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS DVN and NWS LOT, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EFU. The highest wind the damage implies is 105 mph.

• Multiple power poles snapped.
• Whole row of softwood trees snapped.
• Garage swept off foundation and blown into the adjacent field.
• Minor soffit damage to house

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 April 2nd, 2026, and early spring supercell thunderstorm event spread across eastern Iowa and northwest Illinois. This brought several swaths of damaging wind, large hail, and several tornadoes to both Iowa and Illinois.

A tornado passed through northern portions of Sterling, with estimated maximum wind speeds around 90 mph. Along the path, damage was done to trees (including snapped) and two garages in the path saw complete loss of their roofs. Minor damage was noted to two church roofs. There was also a 3000 lb rooftop HVAC unit rolled over, consistent with maximum winds of at least 90 mph.

An EF-1 tornado began in far eastern Whiteside County just north of Fulfs Road and just west of the Whiteside-Lee county line, where satellite imagery showed the beginning of a narrow southwest-northeast path of disturbed soil through farm fields. Drone footage taken along Mound Hill Road in Lee County revealed swirl marks in the field to the west that aligned with the path that was evident in the satellite imagery, confirming that the tornado remained on the ground continuously as it tracked into Lee County. The tornado crossed Mound Hill Road, downing a number of power poles and impacting a property on the east side of the road. The tornado reached its peak intensity here, destroying multiple outbuildings and snapping several trees at this property. The tornado left additional swirl marks in a field to the northeast of the property before causing damage to trees, a residence, and a metal outbuilding along and just south of Lenox Road. As the tornado reached Timber Creek Road, it caused damage to a barn, at least one power pole, and several trees. On the north side of the road, the tornado pushed an old barn off of its foundation into a grain leg, causing the grain leg to collapse. A concrete silo was also toppled at the same location. The tornado then continued northeastward, causing tree and roof damage at a property along Peek Home Road, then damaging an outbuilding, a house, and more trees at a property at Penrose Road and Swarts Road. The tornado produced its last instance of damage at the Hey Tree Service facility along U.S. Route 52/State Route 26 southeast of Woosung before dissipating prior to reaching the Ogle County line. Straight-line wind damage was also observed to the south and east of the tornado's track.

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.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:44 UTC and running to 01:00 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.

Sterling Rockfal (SQI), 8 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Quad Cities radar (KDVN), 77 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:59 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.