Thunderstorm Wind — Vermilion, Illinois

2025-12-28 · near Catlin, Vermilion, Illinois

Event narrative

Multiple trees were blown down, two power poles were snapped, and several homes had a few shingles stripped from their roofs.

Wider weather episode

The airmass continued to destabilize across central Illinois during the afternoon of December 28th as high temperatures reached record values in the upper 60s to around 70 degrees and dewpoints hovered in the lower to middle 60s. Thanks to the high degree of instability and shear, a line of thunderstorms rapidly formed along an advancing cold front near the I-55 corridor by early afternoon. The storms then pushed eastward, producing 3 tornadoes and scattered damaging winds eastward to the Indiana border. The most significant tornado was rated EF-2 and caused considerable property damage just south of Decatur in Macon County.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (40.0866, -87.7524)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1305602. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.