Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 2026

EF0 tornado, DuPage County, Illinois, July 27, 2026

This EF0 tornado ran 2.2 miles across DuPage County on July 27, 2026, touching down at 12:09 PM CDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody.

Preliminary. This is NWS LOT's damage survey, filed in the Damage Assessment Toolkit as Downers Grove. The rating, the path and the casualties are the survey's and can change while it is revised. The Storm Prediction Center compiles the official record of 2026 from these surveys and publishes it in the spring of 2027; this page moves to that tornado's permanent address when it does.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  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.

The survey

Rating, as surveyed
EF0, preliminary
Date
July 27, 2026
Touchdown
12:09 PM CDT (17:09 UTC)
Lifted
12:13 PM CDT (17:13 UTC)
On the ground
4 minutes
Path length
2.2 miles (3.6 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
DuPage County
Touchdown point
41.789, -88.018
Lift-off point
41.763, -88.005
Highest wind the damage implies
85 mph
Surveyed by
NWS LOT
The office's name for it
Downers Grove
Survey last edited
July 30, 2026
Record number
None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.

What the survey found

This tornado touched down near the intersection of Maple Avenue and Brookbank Road before continuing southeastward through neighborhoods on the south side of Downers Grove. Damage along the path of the tornado consisted of snapped and uprooted trees and downed tree branches. The tornado appeared to lift over McCollum Park. This tornado was within a broader region of straight-line winds and was identified by a corridor of locally more intense wind damage with tree branches torn from the tops of trees as well as a subtle radar debris signature visible on KLOT radar imagery.

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

The damage survey

175 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 87 mph.

  • Large branch blocking road.
  • Numerous trees down in the Orchard Brook neighborhood
  • Lots of tree damage at Klein Creek Golf Club
  • Numerous large branches down around Ebersold Park.

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

The air that afternoon

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.

Lincoln, IL (KILX), 12:00Z

5.2 hours before the tornado, 187 km from the path. July 27, 2026.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2026-07-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 3689 joules per kilogram, CIN -49, lifted condensation level 801 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2026-07-27The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 127 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 43 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
3689 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-49 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2711 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
801 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
43 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
127 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
158 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.7
Supercell composite
4.1
0-3 km lapse rate
4.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lincoln, IL (KILX), 00:00Z

6.8 hours after it, 187 km from the path. July 28, 2026.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2026-07-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2993 joules per kilogram, CIN -84, lifted condensation level 1393 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2026-07-28The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 372 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 44 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
2993 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-84 J/kg
Surface CAPE
4047 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1393 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
44 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
372 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
626 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
4.0
Supercell composite
22.2
0-3 km lapse rate
6.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Romeoville/Chi (LOT), 20 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
00:00 UTC

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

The radar

The Chicago radar (KLOT), 20 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:05 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2026 tornado in IllinoisEvery tornado in Illinois since 1950Warnings in force in Illinois nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of July 27, 2026

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

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 2711:55 AM CDTEF0DuPage, IL0.975
July 2711:55 AM CDTEF0DuPage, IL1.075
July 2711:56 AM CDTEF3Appleton-Menasha tornado, WI13.21,50068
July 2712:28 PM CDTEF0Will, IL2.5110
July 2712:34 PM CDTEF0Cook, IL2.9250
July 2712:47 PM CDTEF1Cook, IL11.420012
July 2712:58 PM CDTEF1Cook, IL to IN3.72252
July 274:31 PM EDTEF0Grant, IN5.650
July 276:14 PM CDTEF0Vermilion, IL1.030

What this means

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.

Sources

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.