EF1 Tornado — Tazewell, Illinois

2025-04-20 · near Tremont, Tazewell, Illinois

Event narrative

A tornado touched down just southwest of the intersection of Red Shale Hill Road and Locust Road about 2 miles south of Tremont at 8:49 PM CDT. It tracked northeastward through mainly rural areas, damaging numerous trees and a couple power poles. The most intense part of the tornado occurred when it uprooted a 3-foot diameter tree, snapped a power pole, and peeled the top off a grain bin. It continued northeastward, then dissipated in a field northeast of the intersection of Dee Mack Road and Cooper Road about 2 miles north of Deer Creek at 9:05 PM CDT.

Wider weather episode

A warm front lifted northward through central Illinois during the afternoon of April 20th...allowing temperatures to climb well into the 70s. As a cold front approached from the west, scattered strong to severe thunderstorms developed in the Illinois River Valley by early evening. A few of the cells began rotating, especially as they approached the warm front along and north of the I-74 corridor. Three tornadoes touched down...including 2 EF-1 tornadoes in Knox County and another EF-1 in Tazewell County. Other cells produced scattered wind damage mainly west of I-55, with an isolated damaging wind gust occurring further southeast in Clay County later in the evening as the storms advanced eastward to the Indiana border.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (40.4928, -89.4950)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1249464. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.