National Weather Service, Lincoln IL -- Tornado Climatology of Central and Southeast Illinois

Tornado Climatology for Central and Southeast Illinois

Tornadoes have been common across central Illinois over the years, with lesser totals reported across southeast portions of the state. The map below shows the number of tornadoes reported across the Lincoln NWS's County Warning Area between 1950 and 2007. By clicking on any of the counties, you can get more detailed information on the tornadoes reported in those counties since 1950. Tornadoes in central and southeast Illinois since 1950

While some of the disparity can be attributed to differing weather conditions, some of it is also due to the organization of storm spotter networks, with an overall upward trend in reported tornadoes as the years progressed. To try and account for this, we have also normalized the reports of tornadoes per 100 square miles, instead of just by county boundaries:

**Tornado Rankings, 1950 to 2007**
Rank	County	Tornadoes within county boundary	Rank	County	Tornadoes per 100 square miles
1	McLean	97	1	Logan	9.22
2	Sangamon	68	2	McLean	8.19
3	Champaign	60	3	Sangamon	7.72
4	Logan	57	4	Tazewell	7.24
5	Macon	51	5	Woodford	6.44
6	Tazewell	47	6	Macon	6.09
7	Vermilion	35	7	Champaign	6.02
8 (tie)	Fulton	34	8	Piatt	5.91
8 (tie)	Woodford	34	9	Douglas	5.76
10	Coles	29	10	Coles	5.71
11	Mason	28	11	Mason	5.19
12	Piatt	26	12	De Witt	5.03
12 (tie)	Christian	26	13	Scott	3.98
14	Douglas	24	14	Fulton	3.93
15	Edgar	23	15	Vermilion	3.89
16	Morgan	22	16	Morgan	3.87
17 (tie)	Knox	21	17	Edgar	3.69
17 (tie)	Shelby	21	18	Christian	3.67
19	De Witt	20	19	Schuyler	3.66
20	Effingham	17	20	Effingham	3.55
21	Schuyler	16	21	Cumberland	3.47
22 (tie)	Peoria	14	22	Crawford	3.15
22 (tie)	Crawford	14	23	Knox	2.93
24 (tie)	Clay	13	24	Clay	2.77
24 (tie)	Jasper	13	24 (tie)	Shelby	2.77
26	Cumberland	12	26	Jasper	2.63
27	Scott	10	27	Stark	2.43
28	Clark	9	28	Peoria	2.26
29	Richland	8	29	Richland	2.22
30 (tie)	Cass	7	30	Moultrie	2.08
30 (tie)	Lawrence	7	31	Lawrence	1.88
30 (tie)	Marshall	7	32	Cass	1.86
30 (tie)	Moultrie	7	33	Marshall	1.81
30 (tie)	Stark	7	34	Clark	1.79
35	Menard	6	35	Menard	1.59

The image at left shows the prevailing directions that the tornadoes move from in this area. For example, the 36% along the southwest axis of the graph means that 36% of the tornadoes moved from the southwest to the northeast. Most of the tornadoes in this area moved toward the northeast to east. Fewer tornadoes moved in a southeast direction. Only a handful moved in other directions (shown in the inset at the lower right corner of the image). Click on the image to enlarge.

The database from the National Climatic Data Center was used to create these pages. Besides the tornado information, their interactive database can be used to retrieve information regarding hail, winter storms, and other hazards. Click here to visit this page.

Some other items to consider when reviewing these pages:

Detailed storm surveys were not frequently conducted during earlier time periods. In some cases, this resulted in apparent long tornado tracks, under the assumption tornado remained on the ground the entire time. Also, changes in direction of movement were not well documented.
Earlier records were sketchier in terms of touchdown locations, etc. There may be errors of a few miles in the specific locations of touchdowns.
The F-Scale magnitudes given are for the entire tornado track, although the peak magnitude may have only been in certain locations.

NOAA's National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office