Thunderstorm Wind — Franklin, Illinois

2025-10-19 · near Christopher, Franklin, Illinois

Event narrative

A large tree limb was snapped and fell onto the roof of a house in Christopher.

Wider weather episode

A small cluster of thunderstorms developed and moved all the way across southern Illinois in the early morning. The storms formed just ahead of a strong, sharp 500mb trough in an area of strong upper divergence associated with a small 120kt 300mb jet. Most unstable CAPE was only around 250J/kg, but mid-level lapse rates were 6.5-7 C/km and low-level lapse rates were 6-6.5 C/km. Right near the trough line, the shear was negligible. The storms began to produce damaging winds across eastern portions of Perry County and then solidified into a persistent bow echo over Franklin County. It produced damaging winds as it moved northeast through McLeansboro and into White county.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.9700, -89.0500)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1298143. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.