EF2 tornado, Will and Lake counties, Illinois and Indiana, August 11, 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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2, preliminary

Date

August 11, 2026

Touchdown

10:43 AM CDT (15:43 UTC)

Lifted

11:02 AM CDT (16:02 UTC)

On the ground

19 minutes

Path length

26.2 miles (42.2 km)

Path width

500 yards (457 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Will and Lake counties

Touchdown point

41.429, -87.884

Lift-off point

41.437, -87.392

Highest wind the damage implies

115 mph

Surveyed by

NWS LOT

The office's name for it

Monee - Crown Point

Survey last edited

August 28, 2026

Record number

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

The tornado began near S. La Grange Road/US Highway 45 three quarters of a mile south of W Dralle Road. It initially progressed in a generally easterly direction, causing sporadic tree damage as it roughly paralleled W. Monee Manhattan Road. Damage in this area was consistent with EF-0 winds of 60 to 80 mph. The tornado then crossed Interstate 57 and damaged exterior doors and roofs at several industrial buildings on the north side of Monee before moving across University Park and into Crete with continued tree damage. The severity of tree damage increased as the tornado progressed into northwestern Indiana. The tornado reached its peak intensity in St. John in a localized area in a subdivision off of Blaine Street on the eastern edge of St. John. Here, a single residence at the corner of Dewey Place and 96th Place lost of most of its roof and south and western walls, consistent with peak winds around 115 mph. Tornado damage became increasingly interspersed with straight-line thunderstorm wind damage as the tornado entered Crown Point near Clark Road, and likely dissipated in this area.

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

462 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LOT, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EFU. The highest wind the damage implies is 115 mph.

• Industrial sign blown down to the east.
• Chicago Heights reports power lines downed onto road near Ashland Avenue and 16th Street.
• Photo shared via social media shows sections of north facing wall blown out or collapsed from second floor room. Large sections of siding removed from remainder of building. Exact damage indicator difficult to determine, and nearby damage appears less severe in photo. Wind speed very approximately estimated.
• City of Crown Point reports Delaware Parkway blocked due to downed tree branches.

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

33 minutes of warning. NWS LOT issued a tornado warning for this county at 15:10 UTC, 33 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 16:00 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 12:39 UTC and running to 16:38 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 12:26 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.

Chicago/Lansing (IGQ), 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), 42 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 15:41 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

28 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.