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EF2 tornado in Fayette County, Illinois

Tornado April 30, 2025 · Fayette County, Illinois

EF2
Rating
4.3 mi
Path length
150 yd
Path width
$50K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 150 yards (0.09 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 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

Shortly before 7pm, the tornado formed just south of County Road 750 in Fayette County, southeast of Shobonier, damaging trees and structures at a farm. The tornado tracked northeastward through fields and pockets of trees before impacting farms along County Rd 1100. Shortly after this point, the tornado reached its maximum surveyed strength, where it leveled an outbuilding near the intersection of County Rd 1100 and E 900 Ave. The tornado continued northeastward, producing mainly tree damage and minor structural damage before dissipating shortly after crossing County Rd 1300 north of Augsburg. The tornado was rated EF-2 with a path length of 4.33 miles and a maximum path width of 150 yards.

The wider storm

The environment during the afternoon of April 30th was characterized by increased instability and increasing deep layer shear. This resulted in the development of discrete supercells ahead of a mesoscale convective complex moving northeast from Oklahoma. One particularly robust and long-lived supercell dropped up to 2 inch hail in Clinton County before producing 2 tornadoes in Fayette County.

Began near Shobonier (38.8451, -89.0662).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

1 more tornado the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1241879. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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