EF1 tornado, Lincns New Salem St to Mechanicsburg, 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 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 17, 2026

Touchdown

4:19 PM CDT (21:19 UTC)

Lifted

4:38 PM CDT (21:38 UTC)

On the ground

19 minutes

Path length

24.1 miles (38.8 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Menard and Sangamon counties

Touchdown point

39.916, -89.853

Lift-off point

39.813, -89.430

Highest wind the damage implies

100 mph

Surveyed by

NWS ILX

The office's name for it

Springfield Tornado

Survey last edited

June 20, 2026

Record number

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

The tornado first touched down in southern Menard county and moved southeast into Salisbury. In town it mainly did tree damage, but also damaged a garage and roof of an adjacent home. As it continued southeast into northern Springfield, it continued to do mainly tree damage. As it exited the city on the northeast side, it blew in the garage door of a business. As it moved east-southeast it continued to do only tree damage and actually followed the same path as the June 10th EF1 tornado. The tornado ended about 2 miles west of Mechanicsburg.

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

51 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 100 mph.

• Behind this spot by 200 yds on the west side of road
• Wondering if old or this week
• Owner said it was uprooted on Wed.
• Owner confurmed it brike wed

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.

A tornado touched down in southern Menard County near Hurie Avenue, just east of the community of Loyd. Tree branches were broken off as it tracked southeast through rural areas...reaching the Sangamon County line about 2.5 miles west of State Route 97.

The tornado crossed from Menard County into northern Sangamon County about 2.5 miles west of State Route 97. Tracking through the town of Salisbury, it mainly did tree damage, but also damaged a garage and roof of an adjacent home. As it continued southeast into northern Springfield, tree damage continued. On the northeast side of Springfield, it blew in the garage door of a business. East-southeast of Springfield, tree damage continued in rural areas. In these areas, the tornado followed the exact path of the June 10th 2026 EF1 tornado. The tornado ended about 2 miles west of Mechanicsburg.

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

0 minutes of warning. NWS ILX issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:19 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:15 UTC and running to 00:44 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.

The Lincoln radar (KILX), 41 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:20 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.