EF1 tornado, Rosamond to Assumption, Illinois, March 15, 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

March 15, 2026

Touchdown

6:18 PM CDT (23:18 UTC)

Lifted

6:20 PM CDT (23:20 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

1.4 miles (2.3 km)

Path width

80 yards (73 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$300

County

Christian County

Touchdown point

39.514, -89.061

Lift-off point

39.528, -89.041

Highest wind the damage implies

90 mph

Surveyed by

NWS ILX

The office's name for it

Assumption Tornado

Survey last edited

March 17, 2026

Record number

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

The tornado touched down just southwest of Assumption and town along W Illinois St where it uprooted and snapped numerous trees and knocked over a couple power poles. The tornado proceeded through town where it snapped more trees and removed roofing material from a downtown building and tossed it into an alley. As the tornado exited town to the northeast, it damaged a few more trees before it dissipated before crossing Highway 51.

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

28 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ILX and NWS LSX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 88 mph.

• Debris in the field looking west
• Damage on other side of outbuilding. Debris thrown to NE
• A couple of uprooted pine trees and one snapped part way up

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

A strong low pressure system (987 mb) moved across Illinois during the afternoon of Sunday, March 15, 2026. The environment was characterized by high shear and weak instability. A line of storms swept across the state, producing scattered wind damage and eight tornadoes within the NWS Central Illinois coverage area. The tornadoes occurred southeast of the I-72 corridor and all were rated EF-0 or EF-1. No injuries occurred.

This tornado began on the east side of Nokomis in Montgomery County, producing widespread tree damage. The tornado continued northeast, crossing into Christian County north-northwest of the town of Ohlman. The tornado continued northeast, impacting Rosamond and producing roof and tree damage. It then curved east into Pana where it uprooted and snapped several large trees before dissipating. The tornado produced EF-1 damage in both counties, and it lasted a total of 14 minutes, spanning 13.6 miles.

This tornado began just southwest of Assumption and moved along west Illinois Street where it uprooted or snapped numerous trees and downed power lines. The tornado continued through Assumption, producing more tree damage and removing roofing material from a downtown building. The tornado damage a few more trees northeast of town before dissipating prior to reaching Highway 51. The tornado was rated EF-1, and was in progress for just two minutes.

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

3 minutes of warning. NWS ILX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:15 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:28 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:43 UTC and running to 23:57 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.

Taylorville (TAZ), 24 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Lincoln radar (KILX), 74 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:19 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.