Kelley Thompson and her family were at their home in Mount Vernon, Illinois, on Father’s Day when severe weather ripped through their area. Their home was destroyed, and Thompson and her daughter were trapped inside when the walls collapsed. Thompson describes the experience and the early days of recovery since the storms passed.
We’re nearly halfway through the year, and it’s been an active year for severe weather thus far, with almost 800 reported tornadoes across the U.S.
Illinois leads the country with 157 recorded tornadoes in 2026. According to FOX Forecast Center data, this is more than double the number of tornado reports in any other state.
(FOX Weather)
For context, the state with the second-most number of tornadoes for the year is Mississippi with 75.
Sunday proved to be a very active day of severe weather in the Midwest, setting a record for the highest number of tornado reports ever reported in Illinois.
The FOX Forecast Center said that 200 tornado reports came from the Storm Prediction Center, breaking the previous record of 139 set in 2024.
(FOX Weather)
It is important to note that a tornado can be reported multiple times in different locations. This means the number of documented tornadoes will be lower than the number of tornado reports.
Surveys are still ongoing for Sunday’s event, so the total number of tornadoes is likely to continue rising over the next few days.
On average, Illinois reports about 50 tornadoes per year. It’s June and they’ve recorded triple that number.
(FOX Weather)
The FOX Forecast Center said severe weather this time of year typically dominates the charts in states like Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.
However, a persistent atmospheric setup has pushed the main severe weather track well north of the southern Plains, leaving Texas and Oklahoma unusually quiet while turning Illinois into the primary national hotspot for tornadic activity.
