EF2 tornado, Dorans to Charleston, Illinois, June 17, 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

June 17, 2026

Touchdown

6:42 PM CDT (23:42 UTC)

Lifted

6:59 PM CDT (23:59 UTC)

On the ground

17 minutes

Path length

13.8 miles (22.3 km)

Path width

800 yards (732 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

County

Coles County

Touchdown point

39.536, -88.379

Lift-off point

39.493, -88.142

Highest wind the damage implies

116 mph

Surveyed by

NWS ILX

The office's name for it

Charleston-Mattoon Tornado

Survey last edited

July 3, 2026

Record number

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

The tornado developed 4 miles north of Mattoon and tracked southeast, damaging trees, homes, and electrical transmission lines as it crossed US Highway 45. It intensified as it reached County Rd 700E, uprooting large hardwood trees and lifting the roof off a single family residence. It continued east-southeast from there, crossing Interstate 57 where it flipped a semi, resulting in one injury. It then heavily damaged a few farm outbuildings and trees on the western outskirts of Charleston. It continued eastward through the north side of Charleston, causing damage at the fairgrounds, a few outbuildings, and trees throughout town before lifting 2 miles east of Charleston along Illinois 16.

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

77 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ILX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 116 mph.

• Likely touched down in soybean field to northwest
• 4 poles snapped looking north
• Several mobile homes damaged

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

Several rounds of significant convection impacted central Illinois on June 17th, 2026. Clusters of thunderstorms initially formed on the nose of a strong low-level jet streak across Iowa during the pre-dawn hours, then tracked southeastward along a warm frontal boundary into central Illinois through midday. Scattered damaging wind gusts were reported in north-central Illinois, with the most concentrated corridor of 60-70 mph winds focused along a Galesburg, to Peoria, to Chenoa line.||Thunderstorms re-developed along a remnant outflow boundary from the morning convection by mid to late afternoon, with the most intense cells materializing along and south of a Springfield to Paris line where several tornadoes occurred and hail larger than baseballs (3 diameter) was reported across portions of Moultrie, Douglas, and Coles counties. An EF2 tornado impacted the Mattoon to Charleston area, and an EF3 tracked just north of Effingham.

The tornado developed 4 miles north of Mattoon and tracked|southeast, damaging trees, homes, and electrical transmission|lines as it crossed US Highway 45. It intensified as it reached|County Rd 700E, uprooting large hardwood trees and lifting the|roof off a single family residence. It continued east-southeast|from there, crossing Interstate 57 where it flipped a semi,|resulting in one injury. It then heavily damaged a few farm|outbuildings and trees on the western outskirts of Charleston. It|continued eastward through the north side of Charleston, causing|damage at the fairgrounds, a few outbuildings, an elementary school, and trees|throughout town before lifting 2 miles east of Charleston along|Illinois 16.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:15 UTC and running to 03:18 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 20:04 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.

Mattoon/Charlest (MTO), 4 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Lincoln radar (KILX), 116 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:44 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

27 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.