EF3 tornado, Jefferson and Wayne counties, Illinois, June 21, 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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3, preliminary

Date

June 21, 2026

Touchdown

5:02 PM CDT (22:02 UTC)

Lifted

5:30 PM CDT (22:30 UTC)

On the ground

28 minutes

Path length

15.3 miles (24.6 km)

Path width

400 yards (366 m)

Deaths

2

Injuries

5

Counties

Jefferson and Wayne counties

Touchdown point

38.404, -88.929

Lift-off point

38.387, -88.650

Highest wind the damage implies

140 mph

Surveyed by

NWS PAH

The office's name for it

Dix, IL

Survey last edited

June 24, 2026

Record number

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

An EF-3 tornado touched down 2.5 miles south of Dix along Hwy 37. It quickly intensified and lead to complete destruction of several mobile homes leading to 2 fatalities along July Road and Ranch Lane. A few power poles were snapped and a couple sheds were damaged or destroyed. The degree of tree damage along the path was impressive including dozens that were snapped or uprooted. The tornado crossed over into Wayne County Illinois and was on the ground just over 1 mile before lifting 6 miles northwest of Wayne City. Thank you to the Jefferson County EMA for their assistance with the survey.

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

65 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS PAH, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 140 mph.

• Female fatality at this double wide mh
• 82 yr female death in mobile home
• Likely the northern edge of tornado
• A woman, her daughter and three dogs survived in his house. Drone footage and photo supplied by Swinford Media.

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

22 minutes of warning. NWS PAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:40 UTC, 22 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:29 UTC and running to 03:00 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 Slight 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 19:57 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 Evansville,IN radar (KVWX), 94 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:04 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

43 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.