Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 2026

Unrated tornado, Will County, Illinois, September 10, 2026

This Unrated tornado ran 0.6 miles across Will County on September 10, 2026, touching down at 3:40 PM CDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody.

Preliminary. This is NWS LOT's damage survey, filed in the Damage Assessment Toolkit as Braidwood Cooling Pond. 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.

  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 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. Unratedthis tornado

    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
Unrated, preliminary
Date
September 10, 2026
Touchdown
3:40 PM CDT (20:40 UTC)
Lifted
3:43 PM CDT (20:43 UTC)
On the ground
3 minutes
Path length
0.6 miles (1.0 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Will County
Touchdown point
41.227, -88.231
Lift-off point
41.223, -88.221
Surveyed by
NWS LOT
The office's name for it
Braidwood Cooling Pond
Survey last edited
September 19, 2026
Record number
None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.

What the survey found

Multiple photos and videos captured an inland waterspout occurring over the Braidwood Power Plant Cooling Pond. The waterspout lasted a few minutes and did not cause any known damage as it tracked close to (and possibly over) the large island in the middle of the cooling pond. The location and track of this waterspout are approximate.

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

The damage survey

2 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LOT, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EFU.

  • Approximate start point of inland waterspout.
  • Approximate end point of inland waterspout.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

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 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.

Lincoln, IL (KILX), 12:00Z

8.7 hours before the tornado, 124 km from the path. September 10, 2026.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2026-09-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 45 joules per kilogram, CIN -137, lifted condensation level 936 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Lincoln, IL at 12:00Z on 2026-09-10The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -20 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
45 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-137 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
936 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-20 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
68 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lincoln, IL (KILX), 00:00Z

3.3 hours after it, 124 km from the path. September 11, 2026.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2026-09-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 281 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 705 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 2026-09-11The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 13 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 27 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
281 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
594 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
705 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
13 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
59 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
6.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Chicago radar (KLOT), 44 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:39 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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
20:40 UTCWATERSPOUT2 Se GodleyWill, ILMultiple photos and videos captured an inland waterspout occurring over the Braidwood Power Plant Cooling Pond. The waterspout lasted a few minutes and did not appear to move over land or cause any damage. The location o

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 September 10, 2026

1 more have been surveyed in the United States that day, so far.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 103:34 PM CDTUnratedMarshall, IL0.620

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.