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EF1 tornado in Moultrie County, Illinois

Tornado March 14, 2025 · Moultrie County, Illinois

EF1
Rating
12.6 mi
Whole path
120 yd
Path width

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Moultrie County → Piatt County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 120 yards (0.07 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

The tornado began in far northern Moultrie County, two miles south-southwest of Hammond near the intersection of county roads 1100E and 2400N. The tornado was rated EF-1 in Moultrie County, with a path length of three miles. The tornado continued into Piatt County, crossing US Highway 36 near the southwest side of Hammond and following a curved path for over nine additional miles, producing EF-2 damage. The tornado dissipated in Piatt County northeast of the intersection of county roads North 1400 East Road and State Highway 105, about one mile west of the Piatt-Champaign County line. In Moultrie County, the tornado resulted in a few dozen trees being blown down, roof damage to a house, and damage to several farm outbuildings. From its start in Moultrie County through its dissipation in Piatt County, this tornado lasted a total of 13 minutes.

The wider storm

A potent low pressure system progressed across the Midwest on Friday, March 14, 2025. Ahead of this system, temperatures soared nearly 30 degrees above normal with high temperatures reaching the low 80s across central Illinois. Into the evening and overnight hours, a cold front swept across Illinois, with a line of severe thunderstorms developing ahead of the front. These storms produced widespread damaging straight-line winds and eight tornadoes within the NWS Lincoln County Warning Area, all of which occurred in eastern Illinois. Two of these tornadoes were rated EF-2: one in Moultrie and Piatt counties, and another in Cumberland and Coles counties. The latter of these resulted in two injuries.

Began near Lovington (39.7500, -88.6100).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

7 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1240117. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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