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EF2 tornado in Morgan County, Illinois

Tornado June 18, 2025 · Morgan County, Illinois

EF2
Rating
6.9 mi
Path length
300 yd
Path width
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 300 yards (0.17 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

A tornado began approximately 2.5 miles north-northeast of the northern edge of Jacksonville, producing damage to trees and a camper at a residence near the intersection of Woodlawn Lakes Road and east Woodlawn Lane. From there, it tracked generally to the northeast for over 6.7 miles over the course of 12 minutes. The next notable area of damage occurred along Substation Road, as well as to a property along Sorrill Road north of the intersection of Substation and Sorrill Roads. On Substation Road, wooden power poles were snapped. At the Sorrill Road property, numerous outbuildings were completely destroyed, uplift of roofing occurred on a house, and heavy farm equipment was displaced or mangled. This area was assigned a damage rating of EF-2. The tornado continued northeast for several more miles, crossing Benson Road near Indiana Creek where it damaged trees. The tornado passed about 0.9 miles east of Literberry and continued northeast, flattening corn in the fields before lifting east of Gray Road just to the south of the Morgan-Cass county line.

The wider storm

A mesoscale convective vortex, or MCV, moved into central Illinois late on the morning of Wednesday, June 18th. Moderate instability developed ahead of this feature, and as scattered storms formed they quickly obtained rotation due to shear from the MCV. A total of 14 tornadoes occurred within the NWS Central Illinois county warning area, mainly west of I-55. One minor injury occurred when winds associated with a tornado tossed a woman against her home in Morgan County. Across eastern Illinois, a line of storms developed during the afternoon, mainly producing wind damage before shifting east into Indiana. A wake low developed after the MCV passed, resulting in a short period of non-thunderstorm wind gusts, generally between 45 and 55 mph. The highest non-thunderstorm wind gust associated with the wake low was 58 mph.

Began near Jacksonville Arpt (39.7841, -90.2126).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1261208. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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