Overview
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A complex of thunderstorms (known as an MCS) moved east along I-70 from St Louis into Indiana through the afternoon on June 21st. This laid out a boundary (initially just north of I-64) for storms to form along by late afternoon, which allowed supercells to develop in an environment conducive for tornadoes. This continued through the evening as the boundary very slowly sank southward. A total of 15 tornadoes have been confirmed across our area (confined to our northern two tiers of counties in southern Illinois and southwest Indiana). This broke the record for most tornadoes in the month of June in our forecast area (previously 13 set in 2019) and the EF-3 in Jefferson County was the strongest June tornado since 1990 in our area. |
 Jefferson County IL EF-3 courtesy of Gary Garrod Sr. |
Tornadoes
Select a tornado from the table to zoom into the track and view more information. The default table view is limited to 8 tracks, but can be scrolled by a mouse wheel or dynamically expanded. Additionally, the table can fill the entire window by clicking the small circular expanding arrow icon at the very top right of the table and returned to its original size by clicking the button again. The side information panel that opens over the map can be closed using the "X" on the upper right corner of the pop-up. Zoom into the map and click damage points to see detailed information and pictures from the surveys.
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NOTE: times shown below are local to your device's time zone. |
The Enhanced Fujita (EF) Scale classifies tornadoes into the following categories:
| EF0 Weak 65-85 mph |
EF1 Moderate 86-110 mph |
EF2 Significant 111-135 mph |
EF3 Severe 136-165 mph |
EF4 Extreme 166-200 mph |
EF5 Catastrophic 200+ mph |
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| Tornadoes that fail to impact any ratable damage indicators on the EF-Scale are rated EF-Unknown (EF-U) | |||||
Rain Reports/Flooding
While most of our region didn't receive much rainfall from this system (generally only 0.1 to 0.5"), there were a few localized swaths of 2-3" in portions of the Wabash Valley of southeast IL and southwest IN due to training storms through the evening. Radar estimates even indicated localized amounts of 5-6" just north of our area in southern Illinois. We issued a couple of Flash Flood Warnings and received a few reports of water over roads in areas along and north of I-64. Below is an image of MRMS radar estimates during this event.
Photos
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| Looking towards Deaconess Gateway Hospital in Evansville, IN courtesy of Cliff Weaver | Jefferson County IL Tornado via Lori Workman | Damage to Turkey Farm near Dale, IN courtesy of Tim Smith and Spencer County EMA | Damage to home in Jefferson County IL courtesy of Swinford Media. |
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| House damage in Gibson County IN courtesy of NWS Damage Survey | Church damage in Gibson County IN courtesy of NWS Damage Survey | Power pole snapped near Chandler, IN courtesy of NWS Damage Survey | Drone footage of Newburgh, IN tornado courtesy of Vanderburgh County EMA |
Storm Reports
Preliminary Local Storm Report...Summary National Weather Service Paducah KY 108 PM CDT Tue Jun 23 2026 ..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON... ..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE.... ..REMARKS.. 0747 PM Tornado 3 NE Lynnville 38.23N 87.29W 06/21/2026 Warrick IN NWS Storm Survey EF1 Tornado. 90 mph Peak Wind. Path length 1 mile. Several power poles leaning, large broken tree branches. 0752 PM Tornado 3 S Spurgeon 38.22N 87.25W 06/21/2026 Warrick IN NWS Storm Survey EF0 Tornado. Peak Winds 80 mph. Path length less than one half mile. Brief tornado produced scattered tree damage and a few uprooted trees. 0757 PM Tornado 5 SE Spurgeon 38.21N 87.18W 06/21/2026 Warrick IN NWS Storm Survey EF0 Tornado. Peak Winds 85 mph. Several trees uprooted. 0915 PM Tornado 3 NW Newburgh 37.98N 87.45W 06/21/2026 Warrick IN NWS Storm Survey *** 2 INJ *** EF1 Tornado. 100 mph peak winds. 3 mile path length. Roof and fence damage at an apartment complex. Roof damage continues to other apartments downstream. Dental office had roof mostly removed and thrown into an adjacent apartment complex where it slammed into a building injuring the occupant. Roof damage to nearby shopping center. 1037 PM Tornado 2 NW Chandler 38.06N 87.39W 06/21/2026 Warrick IN NWS Storm Survey EF1 Tornado. Peak Winds 105 mph. Path Length 0.5 miles. Partial roof loss to an outbuilding. Dozens of tree trunks snapped. 1039 PM Tornado 1 NNW Chandler 38.06N 87.38W 06/21/2026 Warrick IN NWS Storm Survey EF1 Tornado. Peak Wind 110 mph. Dozens of snapped tree trunks. Shingle damage to home. Widespread corn crop blow down. 0815 PM Tornado 1 NW Dale 38.18N 87.00W 06/21/2026 Spencer IN NWS Storm Survey EF1 Tornado. Peak Winds 95 mph. Path Length less than one-half mile. Extensive crop damage. Turkey barns suffered significant roof damage. Shingle damage to adjacent home. 1003 PM Tornado Grandview 37.94N 86.99W 06/21/2026 Spencer IN NWS Storm Survey EF0 Tornado. Peak Winds 80 mph. Path Length one-half mile. Brief tornado produced shingle damage to a couple homes and uprooted several trees. 0702 PM Tornado 3 NNE Cynthiana 38.22N 87.70W 06/21/2026 Gibson IN NWS Storm Survey EF2 Tornado. Peak Wind 115 mph. Path Length 11.5 miles. Church severely damaged, Home with roof removed. Significant damage to power poles and transmission lines. Severe crop damage. 0738 PM Tornado 1 ENE Mackey 38.25N 87.38W 06/21/2026 Gibson IN NWS Storm Survey EF1 Tornado. Peak Winds 90 mph. Path Length 1.53 miles. Outbuilding collapsed, mobile home suffered partial roof removal. Severe crop damage. 0853 PM Tornado 4 NE Enfield 38.15N 88.29W 06/21/2026 White IL NWS Storm Survey EFU tornado. Eyewitness and video of a brief tornado touchdown but no damage was found. 0557 PM Tornado 4 NNE Sims 38.41N 88.50W 06/21/2026 Wayne IL NWS Storm Survey EF1 Tornado. Peak winds 95 mph. Path Length 1.53 miles. Storage shed and barn damaged/destroyed. Tree damage. 0711 PM Tornado 2 E Jeffersonville 38.44N 88.36W 06/21/2026 Wayne IL NWS Storm Survey EF1 Tornado. 90 mph peak winds. 3.78 mile path. Carport destroyed, trees damaged. Severe crop damage. 0502 PM Tornado 2 SSE Dix 38.41N 88.93W 06/21/2026 Jefferson IL NWS Storm Survey *** 2 FATAL, 5 INJ *** EF3 Tornado. Peak winds 140 mph. Track 13.8 miles. Several mobile homes destroyed. Severe tree damage, power poles snapped.
Radar
Here is a radar loop for this event starting at 4 PM June 21st and ending at 2 AM June 22nd.
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| Radar Reflectivity and Storm Relative Velocity for Jefferson County, IL EF-3 | Radar Reflectivity and Storm Relative Velocity for Gibson County, IN EF-2 | Radar Reflectivity and Storm Relative Velocity for Newburgh, IN EF-1 | Radar Reflectivity and Storm Relative Velocity for Chandler, IN EF-1 |
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| Map of all the warnings issued during this event. We issued a total of 30 Tornado Warnings during this event, all of which occurred in our northern two tiers of counties in southern Illinois and southwest Indiana. |
Environment
There was a disturbance aloft at 500mb pushing across southern Illinois during the afternoon on the 21st. In the upper levels (300mb) there was good divergence which helps promote rising air from the surface up and fuel convection to form. At the surface, low pressure was located near St Louis, MO around 5 PM with a warm front extending eastward across IL/IN along with a trailing cold front extending southwestward across Missouri.
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| Surface Pressure at 5 PM | 500mb chart at 3 PM | 300mb chart at 7 PM |
Moderate instability was present during the late afternoon with MLCAPE values up to 2000 j/kg pushing in from southwest Illinois. Deep layer shear (0-6 km) was on the order of 40-45 knots, which is rather high for late June. The Significant Tornado Parameter (STP) peaked at 2 just west of Jefferson County, IL at 5 PM.
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| MLCAPE at 5 PM | 0-6km shear at 5 PM | STP at 5 PM |
Effective Storm Relative Helicity (SRH) was 200-300 m2/s2 and 0-1 km shear was around 25 kts, both favorable for tornado development. The environment didn't change much through the course of the evening, as storms further southwest across southern Missouri struggled to get going until late evening and overnight, with plenty of instability still present at 10 PM (MLCAPE of 1500 j/kg across southern Illinois) along with STP values over 1 still. The combination of moderate instability, plenty of low level and deep layer wind shear, and aid from the boundary leftover from the afternoon MCS to our north helped lead to training supercells that slowly sank southward through the course of the evening.
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| SRH at 7 PM | 0-1km shear at 7 PM | MLCAPE at 10 PM | STP at 10 PM |
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