The April 9, 2015 tornado
EF4Lee, Ogle, DeKalb and Boone counties, Illinois
An EF4 tornado on a 30.1-mile path that killed 2 and injured 11. It was one of 19 tornadoes recorded in the U.S. that day.
Watch how it happenedEF4 tornado · April 9, 2015
How it happened
Follow the tornado’s path, minute by minute.
The tornado
- Rating
- EF4
- Enhanced Fujita scale
- Path length
- 30.1 mi
- Width up to 700 yards
- Killed
- 2
- Along the whole path
- Injured
- 11
- Along the whole path
- Date and time
- Thursday, April 9, 2015
- 5:39 PM CST
The National Weather Service account
Written by the local Weather Service office after its damage survey.
This is the second segment of the Rochelle-Fairdale EF-4 tornado. At its strongest, peak winds were estimated to be 200 mph which occurred during this segment of the storm. The tornado entered Ogle County just west of IL-38 and moved northeast where it ripped the roof off of a small barn. A neighborhood was hit on S Skare Court where damage was consistent with EF-3. Some of the homes had large sections of the roofs ripped off while some less well constructed homes (nails instead of bolts) had collapsed walls. The tornado continued northeast and intensified to EF-4 where several well constructed homes along South Richard Road and East Kuehl Court were completely destroyed with the slab swept clean. Several outbuildings were destroyed along East Hemstock Road and South Center Road. A residence on East Bethal Road received heavy damage with most of the outer walls collapsing. The tornado once again intensified to EF-4 near IL-251 and IL-64 where well constructed homes were swept clean off their foundation. A farmstead just northeast of the aforementioned intersection was also swept clean to the foundation. A heavy barn was thrown and rolled on East Lindenwood Road. In total, around 30 homes were damaged or destroyed around Rochelle. The tornado continued into Dekalb County just north of East Quarry Road. (Tornado 2b of 7).
The storm system that day
Seven tornadoes were confirmed in north central Illinois in the NWS Chicago CWA. Six of the tornadoes formed from a single supercell. The atmosphere was ripe for severe weather due to highly anomalous moisture and instability for early April across the region. A strong low pressure system advanced into this favorable air mass. Combined with robust wind shear, this helped to trigger these potent storms. A long tracked violent tornado destroyed numerous homes and farmsteads along its path across north central Lee, eastern Ogle, northwest Dekalb, and southern Boone counties. This path included the far northwest side of Rochelle, Interstate-39, and a direct hit in the community of Fairdale where two fatalities occurred. This was the strongest tornado in the NWS Chicago CWA since the F5 tornado that struck Plainfield, IL on August 28th, 1990.
NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database.
Counties on its path
Storm Prediction Center severe weather database. Path drawn as a straight line from the recorded start to end point.