Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 2026
EF1 tornado, Massac County, Illinois, June 27, 2026
This EF1 tornado ran 1.5 miles across Massac County on June 27, 2026, touching down at 6:14 PM CDT and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody.
Preliminary. This is NWS PAH's damage survey, filed in the Damage Assessment Toolkit as Brookport, IL. 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.
EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- EF1, preliminary
- Date
- June 27, 2026
- Touchdown
- 6:14 PM CDT (23:14 UTC)
- Lifted
- 6:16 PM CDT (23:16 UTC)
- On the ground
- 2 minutes
- Path length
- 1.5 miles (2.5 km)
- Path width
- 75 yards (69 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Massac County
- Touchdown point
- 37.134, -88.647
- Lift-off point
- 37.139, -88.620
- Highest wind the damage implies
- 93 mph
- Surveyed by
- NWS PAH
- The office's name for it
- Brookport, IL
- Survey last edited
- June 29, 2026
- Record number
- None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.
What the survey found
An EF-1 tornado touched down 1 mile northwest of Brookport along Strawberry Road. It snapped several tree trunks along with producing some damage to the front awning of one house. It continued east crossing Hwy 45 and snapping one more tree along Pell Road before lifting.
Written by NWS PAH in the NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit. A survey is revised as better evidence arrives.
The damage survey
7 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS PAH, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EFU. The highest wind the damage implies is 93 mph.
- Tree trunks were pretty rotted, but a clear circulation pattern noticed.
- This looks to be about the edge of the tornado
- Brief tornado touched down along the TN River.
Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.
The warnings
13 minutes of warning. NWS PAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:01 UTC, 13 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:30 UTC.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 17:58 UTC and running to 01:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17:58 UTC | 01:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | PAH |
| 17:59 UTC | 18:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PAH |
| 18:36 UTC | 18:51 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PAH |
| 22:11 UTC | 22:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | PAH |
| 22:24 UTC | 22:38 UTC | Tornado Warning | PAH |
| 22:34 UTC | 23:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | PAH |
| 22:55 UTC | 00:55 UTC | Flood Advisory | PAH |
| 23:01 UTC | 23:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | PAH |
| 23:16 UTC | 00:33 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | PAH |
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 forecast that day
The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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 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.
Nashville Metro, TN (KBNA), 12:00Z
11.2 hours before the tornado, 213 km from the path. June 27, 2026.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 575 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -42 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 655 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 991 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 30 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 27 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 152 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 174 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.3
- Supercell composite
- 2.2
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.1 K/km
Nashville Metro, TN (KBNA), 00:00Z
0.8 hours after it, 213 km from the path. June 28, 2026.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1964 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -6 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 4091 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 986 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 33 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 21 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 131 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 202 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 7.9
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.4 K/km
The radar
The Paducah radar (KPAH), 14 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:14 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.
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23:14 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 1 W Shady Grove | Massac, IL | Floodwaters east of Brookport surrounded multiple small homes and businesses. A lot of water was present in low-lying areas including over Unionville Road. |
| 23:14 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Nw Brookport | Massac, IL | An EF-1 tornado touched down 1 mile northwest of Brookport along Strawberry Road. It snapped several tree trunks along with producing some damage to the front awning of one house. It continued east crossing Hwy 45 and sn |
| 23:20 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 Nnw Shady Grove | Massac, IL | Tree blown down on Mount Pleasant Rd. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
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 June 27, 2026
5 more have been surveyed in the United States that day, so far.
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.