EF1 Tornado — Crawford, Illinois

2025-05-16 · near Annapolis, Crawford, Illinois

Event narrative

A tornado touched down in a field north of East 2100th Avenue and west of North 800th Street about 1.5 miles north-northeast of Annapolis at 6:38 PM CDT. The tornado tracked east-northeastward, causing minor tree damage before crossing into southern Clark County about 0.5 miles west of West York at 6:48 PM CDT.

Wider weather episode

Scattered supercell thunderstorms developed in the vicinity of a nearly stationary frontal boundary draped along I-70 during the afternoon and early evening of May 16th. The storms first formed along a Springfield to Saint Louis line, then tracked east-northeastward generally south of the I-72 corridor, causing sporadic wind damage...most notably in the Decatur and Effingham areas. In addition, the highly unstable airmass to the south created vigorous storm updrafts which supported very large hail. Upon initial storm development, a few stones as large as golf balls occurred on the southeast side of Springfield to near Riverton. However, an even stronger cell later in the afternoon dropped 3-inch diameter hail (larger than a baseball) in Robinson in Crawford County. Another nearby storm produced an EF-1 tornado that tracked across portions of northern Crawford and southern Clark County before crossing the Wabash River into Sullivan County, Indiana.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (39.1643, -87.8026)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1251015. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.