EF1 tornado, Fithian to Hillery, Illinois, June 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 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

June 11, 2026

Touchdown

7:39 PM CDT (00:39 UTC)

Lifted

7:53 PM CDT (00:53 UTC)

On the ground

14 minutes

Path length

13.6 miles (21.8 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Vermilion County

Touchdown point

40.128, -87.911

Lift-off point

40.140, -87.656

Highest wind the damage implies

110 mph

Surveyed by

NWS ILX

The office's name for it

Kickapoo Park Tornado

Survey last edited

June 14, 2026

Record number

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

This tornado largely paralleled I-74 to the north. Some outbuildings were significantly damaged near the start of the track, but the greatest damage was in Kickapoo State Recreation Area. Here, an estimated 250 trees were snapped or damaged by winds up to 110 mph. The tornado lifted along Hungry Hollow Rd., just before moving into Danville. Damage in Danville itself was determined to be from straight-line winds of 80 to 100 mph.

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

44 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ILX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.

• Roof damage to Beck's Country Shoppe off Cunningham Avenue.
• Large outbuilding destroyed
• Two large trees blown down on Hungry Hollow Road.
• Extensive tree damage reported in and around Kickapoo State Park. EMA said 250 trees damaged.

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

A strong storm system interacted with a highly unstable and sheared environment to produce a significant severe weather outbreak across central Illinois during the late afternoon and evening of June 11th. Scattered supercell thunderstorms initially developed west of the I-55 corridor along a pre-frontal trough during the afternoon. One of these storms produced an EF-3 tornado that impacted portions of Woodford and Marshall counties and dropped tennis ball-sized hail (2.50 diameter). Additional cells rapidly developed further west across southeastern Iowa into northern Missouri ahead of an advancing cold front. These storms congealed into a line and pushed eastward into central Illinois during the evening. Widespread damaging wind gusts of 60-70mph occurred with the line along and north of the I-72 corridor. After storm surveys were completed, it was discovered an additional 8 tornadoes were embedded within the line...creating pockets of enhanced damage.

A tornado touched down along East 1800 North Road west of its intersection with IL-49 about 2 miles west-northwest of Fithian at 7:39pm CDT. It tracked eastward along this road, significantly damaging several outbuildings before entering Kickapoo State Recreation Area where it snapped or damaged an estimated 250 trees with winds of up to 110mph. The tornado continued eastward, then dissipated along Hungry Hollow Road just west of Danville at 7:53pm CDT. Damage in Danville was determined to be from straight-line winds of 80-100mph.

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

11 minutes of warning. NWS ILX issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:28 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:04 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 00:09 UTC and running to 03:04 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:53 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.

The Lincoln radar (KILX), 132 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:39 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

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

All 66 of them

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.