Springfield Hit by Two Tornadoes in Six Days as Illinois Shatters All-Time Record With 147

A record-shattering year for tornadoes reaches Illinois' capital

Springfield residents who took shelter from a tornado on June 10 had no reason to think the worst was over. Less than a week later, another EF-1 tornado followed an almost identical path through the city. Both storms tracked 24.1 miles, passing near the Springfield Capital Airport and dissipating near Mechanicsburg, according to the National Weather Service office in Lincoln.

Those two tornadoes are part of a historic stretch of severe weather that has pushed Illinois past 147 confirmed tornadoes in 2026. That number shatters the previous all-time record of 142 set in 2024, and it came with roughly half the year still remaining, according to the Chicago Tribune.

"It's a step change. It's not even a trend," said Trent Ford, the Illinois State Climatologist, in an interview with the Tribune.

What happened in Springfield

The June 17 tornado touched down in southern Menard County around 4:19 p.m., according to News Channel 20. Emergency sirens across Springfield activated around 4:20 p.m., the State Journal-Register reported. The storm moved southeast into Salisbury, an unincorporated community about 12 miles northwest of Springfield, where it damaged a garage and the roof of an adjacent home.

As the tornado entered northern Springfield, it caused primarily tree damage. On the northeast side of the city, it blew in the garage door of a business. The storm continued east-southeast before lifting about two miles west of Mechanicsburg.

The path was described by the National Weather Service as "eerily similar" to the June 10 EF-1 tornado, which followed the same general route through Sangamon County.

A wider outbreak across central Illinois

The June 17 storm system produced at least six confirmed tornadoes across central Illinois, News Channel 20 reported. The breakdown included:

• 1 EF-0 near Pawnee Junction
• 3 EF-1s in Springfield, Blue Mound, and Bethany
• 1 EF-2 in Charleston and Mattoon
• 1 EF-3 in Effingham County

The strongest tornado of the outbreak was the EF-3 in Effingham County, with estimated peak wind speeds of 150 mph. That storm tracked nearly 26 miles, destroying at least three single-family homes near Shumway and Teutopolis, according to the National Weather Service. The winds threw a delivery van approximately 150 yards within Effingham city limits. Multiple non-life-threatening injuries were reported in the area.

In Blue Mound, the EF-1 tornado ripped parts of the roof off Meridian Elementary School and knocked down trees. One tree landed on the home of Bill and Susan Deetz.

"You could hear the wind and the roar at the same time, and I looked at Susan, and I said, 'This is not good,'" Bill Deetz told the Chicago Tribune. "Then, all of a sudden, you heard this big crashing of the tree landing on the roof."

Power outages and local impacts

The storms left thousands without power across the region. Ameren Illinois reported 18,094 customers without power, including scattered outages in Menard and Logan counties, according to the State Journal-Register. City Water, Light and Power addressed an outage affecting 70 customers at Palm Road and Oakwood Drive, just south of Springfield.

Hand of Fate Brewery in Petersburg closed for the night due to storm damage, posting on social media that staff would clear debris and reopen soon.

How unusual is this?

Illinois experienced an average of 54 tornadoes annually between 1990 and 2020, according to NOAA data cited by the Chicago Tribune. Before the current stretch, the state had only four years on record with over 100 tornadoes.

Recent years have seen a dramatic spike:

• 2023: 121 tornadoes
• 2024: 142 tornadoes (previous record)
• 2025: 126 tornadoes
• 2026: at least 147 (as of June 21)

Even during the record-setting 2024, Illinois had only 91 tornadoes as of June 22, according to NOAA data. This year's pace is far ahead of that.

Ford told the Tribune there is no single explanation for the surge. Climate change may be increasing humidity levels in the Midwest, providing more fuel for strong thunderstorms. Studies also show tornadoes are occurring more often during nontraditional months, with nearly half of Illinois tornadoes in recent years happening in fall or winter.

"If we say it's just random weather variability, well, that can explain one crazy frequent tornado year, but not four in a row," Ford said.

What comes next

The National Weather Service in Lincoln issued a tornado watch for parts of east-central and southeast Illinois on June 21, followed by tornado warnings for Stewardson, Strasburg, and Beecher City. A radar-confirmed tornado was reported east of Louisville in Clay County later that day.

The severe weather in southern Illinois on June 21 also caused two deaths and five injuries, according to KFVS12. Sheriff Jeff Bullard confirmed one fatality about five miles southeast of Dix and a second death near North July Road in Mt. Vernon.

Meteorologists expected drier conditions for the start of the following week, though another system was forecast to move into the region by midweek, said Lee Carlaw, a senior meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Chicago.

"Then it looks relatively quiet, continuing into midweek," Carlaw said. "There's another system that looks like it's going to move into the region."

The Illinois State Climatologist noted that the state has no reliable way to predict when this stretch of hyperactive tornado activity will end.