Home / Illinois / Clay

EF1 tornado in Clay County, Illinois

Tornado June 21, 2026 · Clay County, Illinois

EF1

Rating

4.3 mi

Path length

200 yd

Path width

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 200 yards (0.11 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

The tornado was observed 2 miles south-southwest of Louisville

just south of Grover Creek Ln. The tornado moved northeast

entering the south side of town, removing a large portion of the

roof of a business storage building and attached residence. The

tornado continued through town in a weakened state with minor

branch damage occurring. The tornado re-intensified just

northeast of town where it snapped off power poles and large

trees along Old Bible Grove Rd. The tornado moved northeast and

damaged more trees before dissipating near Nickel Ln.

The wider storm

A remnant Mesoscale Convective Vortex (MCV) interacted with a sheared and unstable environment to produce numerous supercells in southeast Illinois on June 21st. 13 tornadoes were documented, the strongest being two EF-2 tornadoes near Newton. Storms training over the same areas led to widespread heavy rainfall and several occurrences of flash flooding.

Began near Louisville (38.7442, -88.5178).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

11 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF2 Jasper County EF1 Cumberland County EF1 Crawford County EF1 Crawford County EF1 Lawrence County EF1 Richland County EF0 Shelby County EF0 Cumberland County EFU Tazewell County EFU Christian County EFU Shelby County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1351059. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

Tornadoes near your address

See every tornado that passed near a place you know, measured to its path.