EF0 tornado, Wheeler to Yale, Illinois, February 19, 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

February 19, 2026

Touchdown

4:02 PM CST (22:02 UTC)

Lifted

4:04 PM CST (22:04 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.7 miles (1.0 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Jasper County

Touchdown point

39.090, -88.071

Lift-off point

39.092, -88.059

Highest wind the damage implies

70 mph

Surveyed by

NWS ILX

The office's name for it

Yale Tornado

Survey last edited

February 27, 2026

Record number

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

A short-lived tornado occurred in a field 3 miles southwest of Yale. Evidence was seen along side of the road where the tornado went through the field.

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

4 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ILX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EFU. The highest wind the damage implies is 75 mph.

• Video from two storm chasers of minor damage to trees 1 miles southeast of Wheeler.
• Video of brief touch down in an open field from a storm chaser.
• Lots of grass matted down pointing east.

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

A surface low lifted northeastward across Missouri towards the Illinois-Iowa border during the afternoon and evening of February 19th. A warm front extended east from the low into southeast Illinois. In response to this system, scattered supercell thunderstorms developed across central and southeast Illinois, with the greatest coverage being in the general vicinity of the I-70 corridor. Environmental conditions supported all severe hazards, including large hail up to 2.5 inches in diameter, damaging winds, and tornadoes, with a total of eight tornadoes occurring in the NWS Lincoln coverage area. Most of these tornadoes were brief, and none were stronger than EF-1, but one serious injury occurred in Crawford County as a result of a tornado. Another indirect injury occurred on I-57 in Effingham County when thunderstorm winds contributed to a multi-vehicle accident.

Video from a storm chaser showed a tornado develop about one mile southeast of Wheeler. The tornado caused minor damage to trees as it travelled northeast across Highway 33 before dissipating just east of N 500th St.

A short-lived tornado developed in a field three miles southwest of Yale. It moved northeast and dissipated shortly after crossing N 1675 St. The tornado resulted in tall field grass being blown over and matted down.

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

39 minutes of warning. NWS ILX issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:23 UTC, 39 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:20 UTC and running to 03:15 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 19:59 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.

Robinson (RSV), 37 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Evansville,IN radar (KVWX), 97 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:02 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

10 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.