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EF1 tornado in Stephenson County, Illinois

Tornado April 14, 2026 · Stephenson County, Illinois

EF1

Rating

5.1 mi

Path length

100 yd

Path width

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 100 yards (0.06 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 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 formed briefly in the occlusion of an rear flank downdraft northwest of Pearl City. It heavily damaged and destroyed several farm outbuildings, lifted a large farm wagon into an outbuilding, damaging the roof and side. The tornado also snapped several tree trunks and tree damage. Power poles were also snapped as the tornado crossed Illinois Highway 73 before lifting shortly thereafter. The tornado caused EF-1 damage with maximum estimated winds of 105 mph.

The wider storm

Significant severe storms on the afternoon and evening of April 14th brought numerous reports of large hail, damaging wind, and multiple tornadoes. The U.S. Hwy 20 corridor saw a long lived supercell that producing large hail (up to baseball size), damaging wind (88 mph gust at the Dubuque Airport), and several tornadoes. Additional storms developed further south between I-80 and Hwy 20 that brought large hail and a photogenic tornado near Onslow, IA.

More storms quickly followed overnight and again on the next day, April 15th, bringing heavy rain, large hail, and isolated wind damage. Rainfall amounts over 1.5 were common north of I-80, with the highest totals over 3.5 seen in northwest IL. This caused a mudslide on Hwy 84 in Carroll County closing the road for an extended period of time.

Began near Pearl City (42.2900, -89.8600).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1328670. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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