EF1 Tornado — Menard, Illinois

2025-06-18 · near Atterberry, Menard, Illinois

Event narrative

The tornado began along Ed Hinrichs Road, where it produced minor damage to trees. It then moved northeast, destroying five grain bins and removing the tops of hardwood trees at a farmstead along Gellerman Road. The last observed damage was at a pair of homes along Newmansville Avenue, where large, healthy tree limbs were blown off of hardwoord trees, numerous evergreen trees were topped, and shingles were removed from both homes. The tornado was rated EF-1.

EF-1 tornado with max winds of 110 mph. It tracked 1.4 miles and caused tree damage, destroyed 5 grain bins, and removed shingles from two homes.

Wider weather episode

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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (39.9934, -89.9182)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1261223. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.