12 tornadoes devastate central Illinois, including high-end EF-3 near Washburn

Two consecutive days of severe storms ripped through central Illinois and left a trail of torn roofs, splintered trees and damaged homes from Washburn to Springfield. The National Weather Service’s Central Illinois office said preliminary surveys confirmed 12 tornadoes in the region from June 10-11, including a high-end EF-3 near Washburn in Woodford and Marshall counties.

In Springfield, the most visible damage came after dark, when three EF-1 tornadoes were confirmed in quick succession. One touched down at Lincoln’s New Salem State Historic Site at 10:49 p.m.; another moved through the Athens area from 10:59 p.m. to 11:03 p.m.; and a longer-lived tornado hit Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport and the Springfield Animal Protective League campus before tracking more than 20 miles to Mechanicsburg. The 10-minute gap between the first two Springfield touchdowns underscored how little time some residents had to react. The shelter at the APL campus was destroyed, but no animals were hurt, and the weather service reported no injuries in the Springfield-area tornadoes.

The Washburn-area tornado was the strongest of the outbreak so far, and survey teams found extensive tree damage and roof damage in rural Woodford and Marshall counties. Elsewhere, an EF-0 tornado in Ipava damaged crops and solar panels, showing how the storms hit both towns and farmland across central Illinois. By June 15, the weather service said the tally of central Illinois tornadoes was still evolving as survey teams continued their work.

The setup was as dangerous as the damage. The weather service said scattered supercell thunderstorms formed west of the I-55 corridor during the afternoon, feeding on temperatures in the 80s, dewpoints in the middle to upper 70s and increasing deep-layer shear ahead of an approaching trough. That unstable pattern helped produce a broader outbreak that stretched beyond central Illinois, with National Weather Service Chicago saying at least 20 tornadoes had been confirmed across its area of responsibility in northern and central Illinois and northwest Indiana. In Streator, where a tornado severely damaged homes, at least one person had to be rescued from the rubble of a destroyed house. Local officials opened a Red Cross shelter and restricted access to damaged neighborhoods as crews began the longer work of clearing debris and assessing losses.