Thunderstorm Wind — Franklin, Illinois

2025-09-14 · near Rend City, Franklin, Illinois

Event narrative

A powerful storm tracked southward through Franklin County. The worst of the damage was at the South Marcum Campground on Rend Lake where numerous trees fell, including a group of half a dozen large trees. One of the trees at South Marcum Campground fell onto an RV. A tree was blown down at a residence south of Benton, with the top of the tree landing on a deck. Another tree fell along I-57 southbound between Benton and West Frankfort.

Wider weather episode

A stationary front was located on the northern edge of the Quad State throughout the day on the 14th. A localized low pressure area over the Quad State helped generate scattered showers and thunderstorms during the afternoon and evening hours on the 14th. These storms generally tracked southwestward through Southern Illinois, Southeast Missouri, and far Western Kentucky. MLCAPE values were 1000-2000J/kg with DCAPE at 1200-1400J/kg in Southern Illinois. Effective bulk shear was limited to under 30kts. While a couple areas had quarter size hail spotted, straight-line wind damage was the primary severe weather hazard. Particularly robust downburst winds were observed in Franklin and Jackson Counties in Southern Illinois with heavy tree damage to a campground off of Rend Lake and a line of damage from a storm tracking southwestward in Jackson County. A downburst in Saline County overturned and partially destroyed an anchored single-wide trailer.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (38.0400, -88.9383)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1294564. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.