EF1 tornado in St. Clair County, Illinois

The tornado crossed into St. Clair County about 0.4 of a mile northwest of Hecker. The tornado intensified as it crossed Illinois Route 159. In this area, it destroyed a large barn, caused minor roof damage to a house and snapped off a number of trees. It continued to track to the northeast causing sporadic tree damage and minor roof damage to outbuildings before lifting and dissipating on Klein School Road just north of intersection with Illinois Route 156 at 6:59 PM CDT. The tornado was rated EF1 in St. Clair County with a max wind speed of 100 mph. The path length was 3.66 miles with a max path width of 100 yards. Overall, the tornado was rated EF1 with a max wind speed of 100 mph. The total path length was 19.57 miles with a max path width of 100 yards. No deaths or injuries were reported.

Several strong to severe thunderstorms moved into eastern Missouri in the afternoon hours of April 15th. These storms were initially producing copious large hail, but rapidly transitioned into tornadic storms. The first tornado was associated with a supercell ahead of a congealing line of convection moving rapidly toward the Mississippi River. A portion of this line of storms rapidly surged eastward, resulting in numerous tornadoes in Jefferson county in Missouri, and Monroe, Madison, St. Clair, and Washington counties in Illinois. In total, 12 tornadoes have been identified, including 3 EF-1s, 6 EF-0s, and 3 tornadoes of unknown intensity that produced no damage.