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Illinois surpasses 100 tornadoes for fourth year in a row

By
Kylee Miller
Kylee Miller
Meteorologist
Kylee Miller is designated as a Certified Broadcast Meteorologist by the American Meteorological Society. You can watch her on CBS Chicago.
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Kylee Miller

/ CBS Chicago

Severe weather season has been off to a very active start in Illinois, with everything from flooding, hail, and damaging winds – and more than 100 tornadoes statewide.

As of April 22, the preliminary count for tornadoes across the state of Illinois stands at 101 and counting, easily leading the entire country by far. That's nearly double the annual average of 54 tornadoes in Illinois.

With our severe weather season just getting started and lasting through September, that number has the chance to go up. The typical count for tornadoes per year across Illinois is 54, so we already nearly doubled that.

As of April 19, there have been at least 20 tornadoes in the National Weather Service Chicago forecast area, which includes parts of northwest Indiana. The typical number for that forecast area is between 10 to 20 tornadoes per year.

  • March 10th
    • An EF-0 tornado north of Pontiac, IL.
    • An EF-U tornado near Cayuga, IL (midway between Pontiac and Odell).
    • An EF-U tornado in Kankakee Township. This brief tornado occurred prior to the start of the Kankakee-Roselawn EF-3 tornado.
    • An EF-U tornado in Otto Township. This brief tornado lifted just before the start of the Kankakee-Roselawn EF-3 tornado. 
    • An EF-3 tornado that tracked through southern Kankakee and Aroma Park in Illinois and Lake Village and Roselawn in Indiana before ending west of DeMotte, IN.
    • An EF-1 satellite tornado just southwest of Sun River Terrace. This was a southward-moving satellite tornado associated with the Kankakee-Roselawn EF-3 tornado. 
    • An EF-U tornado immediately south of Sun River Terrace. This was a brief satellite tornado associated with the Kankakee-Roselawn EF-3 tornado.
    • An EF-U tornado in southeastern Ganeer Township, southeast of Sun River Terrace. This was another brief satellite tornado associated with the Kankakee-Roselawn EF-3 tornado.
    • An EF-U tornado in Momence Township, north of Hopkins Park. This was an anticyclonic satellite tornado that initially moved north, stopped, then tracked south before ending very near its starting location.
    • An EF-1 tornado that tracked from southwest of Wheatfield to near Dunns Bridge, IN.
  • April 2nd
    • EF-1 near Palmyra and Woosung in northwest Lee County. 
    • EF-1 in Pine Creek Township in southern Ogle County. 
    • EF-0 in Holcomb in northeast Ogle County. 
  • April 17th
    • EF-U in Pecatonica
    • EF-1 in Harrison
    • EF-1 in Roscoe
    • EF-1 in Gibson City
    • EF-1 near Loda and Buckley
    • EF-2 in Darrow
    • EF-1 in Kentland, Indiana

As the climate warms, Illinois has seen a surge in tornado activity in the last few years. This is the fourth year in a row Illinois has surpassed 100 tornadoes statewide.

In 2023 and 2025, Illinois ranked 1st in the country, with the most confirmed tornadoes out of any other state – 121 in 2023 and 126 in 2025. In 2024, Illinois ranked 2nd in the U.S., with a state record 142 tornadoes, while Oklahoma lead the country that year with 153 confirmed tornadoes.

Meteorologists have said, over the last 40 years, the number of tornadoes has gone down in states like Texas and Oklahoma, in what's known as the nation's Tornado Alley, while in areas further east, like Tennessee, Indiana, and Illinois, have seen an increase in tornadoes.

Other recent studies support that finding, showing Tornado Alley shifting into Illinois

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